Éclats - Live In Europe, the fourth recording by Sylvie Courvoisier’s trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen, documents the outfit at a point where structure and spontaneity have become nearly indistinguishable. The album artfully stitches together excerpts from three dates in early 2025, while maintaining a consistent sonic ambience and the continuity of a single performance. It presents nine Courvoisier compositions, all but one drawn from the group’s previous three outings, including some of the pianist’s most memorable tunes in what could pass as a greatest hits compendium.

Even in normal circumstances, Courvoisier’s writing teems with catchy hooks, abrupt switchbacks and sudden suspensions. After six years of touring this repertoire following 2020’s Free Hoops, the trio has internalized the material to the point where the charts function more as points of departure than fixed forms. As a consequence the renditions here bear scant resemblance to the original versions, thematic framing aside. Nor are they alternate codifications. Having been lucky enough to witness the threesome several times in recent years, I can attest that they treat the pieces as organic entities, freshly minted on each occasion, kaleidoscopic in reach.

The title cut, one of the pianist’s flagship numbers, which has appeared in multiple guises over the years, furnishes a case in point. Dedicated to Ornette Coleman, it echoes the saxophonist’s vivacity, but views it through a distinctly exploratory lens. After the sprightly head, a lyrical bass and drum interlude settles into a walking groove. Courvoisier exploits this as a backdrop for a jaw-dropping display incorporating metal rubbed across strings, poltergeist taps, jazzy consonance, bluesy motifs, Cecil Taylor-like energy and articulation, and hyperspeed runs which suggest Conlon Nancarrow at his most ambitious. Her ability to meld real-time piano preparations and disparate styles into a cohesive whole brooks no rivals. In one exceptional passage she makes the strings veritably moan, eliciting sympathetic bass slurs from Gress. All of it unfolds in just over six minutes, on almost the shortest track.

At times such adventures generate formidable momentum. Gress exerts a mastery of melody and motion, combining them into an elastic flow, while Wollesen takes care of business without neglecting pitch and timbre. Yet although they tether the trio to the tradition, they remain alert to opportunities to subvert it. Foot-tapping or head nodding are likely to lead to dislocation. Form dissolves in an instant, only to miraculously reassemble Terminator-like and carry on as if nothing has happened. Bass and drums shine through gaps in the luxuriant surrounding foliage, whether cleared purposely or occurring by serendipity is a moot point. False endings and teasing feints, in which incipient solos suddenly vanish, render futile any attempt to distinguish scored interventions from collective improvisation.

Gems stud the program. “Just Twisted” takes on the contours of a drum concerto, Wollesen stretching out alone and later atop a rippling piano figure, amid the emphatic flourishes, slashing boogie-woogie and darting clusters. On the kinetic “Imprint Double” Courvoisier essays a dazzling series of glissandos before slotting back into a stomping beat. Gress introduces “South Side Rules” with a singing arco serenade. “Lulu’s Dance” receives a spare pointillist reading, taking its cue from the clipped high notes interpolated into the rolling theme, and providing a platform for the clacks and clangs of the drummer’s homemade “Wollesonics.”

Few working bands move so comfortably between swing, abstraction and chamber-like detail while sounding this wholly engaged with the moment. Among a slew of strong releases, this stands as one of Courvoisier’s finest.

https://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD95/PoD95MoreMoments2.html

UGLY BEAUTY: THE MONTH IN JAZZ — June 2026
James Brandon Lewis Is Here To Testify

James Brandon Lewis gives the impression of being wise beyond his years, but he’s got just as
many questions as anybody else. The son of a minister, he grew up in Buffalo, NY, and attended
Howard University. After graduation in 2006, he moved to Colorado, where he spent several
years as a gospel musician. In 2010, he began attending CalArts, studying with Wadada Leo
Smith, Charlie Haden and others, and releasing an independent album, Moments. After
receiving his MFA, he moved to New York and began working with Matthew Shipp, William
Parker, and Gerald Cleaver, among others. He released Divine Travels in 2014, and hasn’t
stopped moving since.

Lewis’s discography is broad, and scattered across multiple labels, from the major imprint Okeh
to tiny European indies. He changes personnel often, working in all sorts of contexts. But since
2018, one of his strongest creative relationships has been with drummer Chad Taylor.
“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 1985 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.”
In 2020, Lewis invited Taylor, bassist Brad Jones, and pianist Aruán Ortiz to join him in a new
quartet project. The goal with this band, separate from all his other groups, was to explore a set
of compositional principles Lewis refers to as Molecular Systematic Music. In a 2020 essay, he
explained the theory behind it: 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.”

Over the course of five studio albums and a double live CD, Lewis has used the theories of
Molecular Systematic Music to compose more than 40 pieces, some of which are clearly linked
(there are compositions simply called “Per 1” through “Per 7” on the group’s first four studio
albums) but all of which fit together somehow, forming a single body of work.

“I think that for the quartet specifically, outside of all my other groups, there’s clearly a
language that we’ve built over time,” Lewis told me recently, while on tour with the
Messthetics (guitarist Anthony Pirog and bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, both ex-
Fugazi). “And I’ve never really shown them. Chad’s seen the molecule, and seen how I’ve been
building the music over the years. But Aruán and Brad, I just kind of like... I still write in Western
notation for the group.”

Lewis explained the molecule to me as a set of 17 six- or seven-note scales. “But it's not modal
music. It’s not even coming from that perspective. Basically, I built a molecule for myself years
ago that draws inferences between molecular biology and music nomenclature. And then
basically [serves] as a structure mapping engine, an analogy or metaphoric concept where you
have two things... and then you keep drawing inferences between the two until they become
one.” He says that even five albums deep, he’s still only scratching the surface of MSM’s
potential, that his system is “built in a very specific, idiosyncratic way, and really most of the
albums only cover maybe one of those, or maybe two or three of those scales. So it’s really... a
life’s work, really, how I’m building on it.”

https://jamesbrandonlewis.bandcamp.com/track/the-sermon

The latest quartet album, Omni, is something of a musical sequel to their 2024 release,
Transfiguration: “I’m now using the other, what you would call in the context of my system the
negative space, which is the other six notes [of a 12-tone scale]. So it’s really catering to this
idea of atonal music, but it’s my own take on it. So it’s not like Schoenberg or nothing like that.
...

"The second act of one of Europe’s most fearless experimental rocks bands of the 70s and early 80s continues, now running much longer than Act One. OM was the band who set out in 1972 to bypass all the dauntless bands dabbling in jazz-rock fusion by bringing rock straight into the free improvisation realm. Now in their seventies, the members of OM seem just as determined as ever to keep making this challenging but ultimately rewarding music.

Südpol (June 19, 2026, Intakt Records) marks the fourth new album by the group since reconvening in 2000 after an eighteen-year hiatus and releasing fresh recordings starting in 2010. Recorded live at a December 2024 concert in Südpol, Switzerland, this is also their first album with a deviation from their original lineup of Urs Leimgruber (Soprano Saxophone), Christy Doran (Electric Guitar, Devices), Bobby Burri (Double Bass, Devices) and Fredy Studer (drums, percussion).

That’s because OM took a blow when founding member Studer passed in 2022 as they were preparing the release of 50, but the remaining three soldiered on replacing Studer with not one but two drummers. And what drummers: Gerry Hemingway, he of Anthony Braxton Quartet fame and Tony Buck, he of The Necks fame.

OM’s music — particularly on this release — fits with the divergent backgrounds of both drummers, because the free improv component of OM is also a major component of Braxton (and other past Hemingway collaborators), while the patient development of their performances finds commonality with the minimalist approach of The Necks.

“Fast Line” launches with a frenzied outburst but soon settles into a slow march, marked by a low-end bass, Doran’s distantly eerie guitar portentions and Leimgruber soprano piercing through the silence. As the song battles back to chaos, Hemingway and Buck begin to dominate, as the double drums attack forms a thunderous din when the band returns to the free-rock explosion of the beginning. Leimgruber screaming “get me some air” in the middle of this was a genuine plea, not mere theatrics: he was suffering from fibrosis in his lungs at the time.

“Gamelan” develops slowly, rising up to a contentious point midway through only to fall back on a barren soundscape. Leimgruber leaves behind thoughtfully placed notes and Burri leads the group into another brief crescendo right at the end.

“PMF” is founded by a tribal groove, and Leimgruber’s sax burrows into it but sometimes letting the rest figure out their next, subtle move. Doran’s effects-laden guitar rises from the background, sounding like he’s playing the guitar backwards at first as the drummers kick things up a notch and briefly overtake everyone else. Leimgruber returns playing in the altissimo range, offering a sharp contrast to the low rumble of the rhythm section.

“The Frog Jumps In -Im Unterholz Bei Kyjiv” is remindful of the stark, nearly-empty spaciousness that permeated throughout It’s About Time. That is, until Burri finds the small fragment of a riff and builds it up with drums in tow until it builds into a loose, funk expedition. It abruptly stops and the band builds another spontaneous procession up from nothing.

Doran’s rhythm guitar paces “Behind the Eye,” the most conventional sounding song in this batch as it leans harder into the rock side than the improv side. But an unexpected leap into electronics-laden free-form mid-song feels like OM was pulling a clever, winking head-fake on us after all.

The persistence of the members of OM is evident just by continuing OM more than fifty years after they started it. But the dogged determination of the band can also be heard within the steely music they made on Südpol.

https://somethingelsereviews.com/2026/06/18/om-sudpol-2026/"

Die Story könnte so beginnen: Als Formanek „New Digs" avisierte, versuchte er zunächst den brillanten Pianisten Alexander Hawkins zu engagieren. Ein geradezu genialer Coup, denn er setzte ihn an eine Hammond B3. Dazu holte er Mary Halvorson (Gitarre), Tomas Fujiwara (Schlagzeug) und vervollständigte die Crew mit den drei avancierten Bläsern John O'Gallagher, Chet Doxas und João Almeida. „aka the Stinger" hat diesen Soul-Jazz-Swing und Halvorson passt sich diesem für sie eher etwas ungewohnten Umfeld mit einem Stil à la Jim Hall eindrucksvoll an. Formaneks Bass übernimmt oft die Basspedale der Orgel, agiert dabei aber deutlich flexibler. „Quinze" präsentiert sich als Jazz der 60er Jahre, wobei Hawkins' Hammond-Orgel an Larry Young erinnert. Hawkins Sound auf „Nigh Total" geht in Richtung analoger Synthesizer des frühen Psychedelic Rock (Silver Apples etc.). Geradezu überwältigend die Abschiedsballade „Gone Home – Interlude for Susan Alcorn" – allein für das „farewell" an die Gitarristin lohnt sich – New Digs!

Pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins has spent years at the forefront of the European jazz avant- garde scene, leading various mutations of the standard group format, from solo piano to large ensembles and everything in between. Experimenting with different dynamics, instruments, and musicians, and adapting them to fulfill the needs of the music has been his calling card for nearly two decades now. On No Nation But Imagination, Hawkins once again mixes things up, putting together a unique lineup featuring piano, flute, harp, drums, synthesizers, samplers, and turntables.

This new quintet is a juxtaposition of electronic and acoustic instrumentation, and this mix creates a harmonic and structural friction integral to the music they play, almost as if the group is an instrument itself. Flutist Nicole Mitchell and drummer Hamid Drake, who are both firmly grounded in the Chicago sounds of the AACM, establish the living pulse of the music. However, this pulse is challenged by both the harp of Rhodri Davies and the samples and digital manipulations of Matthew Wright. Firmly woven into the songs' structure, these elements give the proceedings a futuristic, alien feel, as if beamed in from another galaxy. Also interesting is that Hawkins's piano rarely takes the lead; it is often Davies who is out front.

There is a reason for this: Hawkins skillfully uses post-production as its own instrument, weaving musical elements together, splicing, looping, and layering them in unique ways, creating and composing something entirely new from these recordings. This technique is certainly nothing new; Teo Macero used a similar approach to create **** Brew (Columbia Records, 1970), but here Hawkins shows what it could sound like in the modern world of jazz, where the artist can pull elements from virtually anywhere and weave them into their sonic tapestry.

Album opener, "Solo Way Far Gone," sets the tone immediately with its simple yet effective synth line, or is it a synth? We do not know, and that is the point! This is highly reminiscent of the trips through the spaceways that Sun Ra so often took us on. Elsewhere, on "Resolution Each and Every," Drake's beats take center stage, while the background is a whirlwind of sounds and instruments coming in and out of view in a game of sonic peekaboo.

Ultimately, No Nation But Imagination succeeds because it takes the old jazz rulebook and throws it away. By not using traditional instruments like saxophone or piano to state the main theme and take the lead on these songs, Hawkins constructs a futuristic sonic world where anything is possible, and any preconceived notions disappear like tears in the rain. It is an exciting proposition and a bit of a radical viewpoint in the world of the avant-garde.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/no-nation-but-imagination-alexander-hawkins-intakt-records

Confirming her in sync affiliations with Windy City improvisers, German alto saxophonist Angelika Niescier assembled two local groups to interpret nine compositions with sophisticated perception that belie oceanic separation. The approach is consistent with the saxophonist’ internationalism which over the years has seen her forge partnerships with the likes of Alexander Hawakins and Tomeka Reid,

Drummer Mike Reed is featured on all nine tracks, but otherwise sounds are divided between quartets. One matches Niescier and Reed with bassist Luke Stewart and flutist Nicole Mitchell; the other has the drummer and saxophonist playing alongside tenor and alto saxophonist Dave Rempis and vibist Jason Adasiewicz. Each of these Chicago young veterans have histories with innovative sound explorers, including Peter Brötzmann, James Brandon Lewis, Ken Vandermark, Wadada Leo Smith and Joëlle Léandre.

Each quartet emphasizes contrasting timbres. For instance the Mitchell/Stewart group on tracks such as “Samo (BSQT)”, take advantage of rhythm section fusion. As well as locking in the groove, Reed focused ruffs and paradiddles set up the exposition, while throughout Stewart advances from chiming string plucks to thickened slides. Meanwhile Michell’s aggressive vocalized slurs and yearning slithers join with Niescier’s shaking split tones and elevated yelps to create a tandem interchange as each riffs around the other’s solo. Turning splayed vibraphone reverberations into kaleidoscopic colorations on “Fluxed” and other instances with Adasiewicz and Rempis, Niescier moves up the scale with tongue stops, shakes and shudders as Rempis on tenor saxophonist fragments the narrative past melody but with the dissection fit logically with the drum pulse that preserves the track’s linear flow.

Contrapuntally challenges are often set up involving Niescier and either of the horn players. With Rempis the interface is often as much a duel as dual expressions. At points tandem saxophone undulations are interrupted as the alto saxophonist turns to triple tonguing, speedy split tones and stop-time flutters as Rempis propels up and down tongue slaps and thickened bites. Vibraphone sustain then usually knits the tones back to layered intermingling. In contrast Michell’s flute expertise emphasizes both basso bellows and tremolo puffs, often in the same solo or concentrated as continuum. Yet dialogue remains constant as Niescier self-assured collection of yelps, snorts and broken octave affiliations join Reed’s smacks and respirations to create variants that advance logically without losing any toughness.

Remnants of Northern European immigrant impacts on Chicago culture may have aided the cohesive musical integration that characterize the Chicago Tapes as well as the Chicago-birthed music that has long animated European Jazz. Or maybe the session’s achievement pinpoints the celebratory sounds that result when equally accomplished players from anywhere unite to make music.

https://www.jazzword.com/reviews/angelika-niescier/

Longtime collaborators Stephan Crump and Eric McPherson join forces with Darius Jones in Otherlands Trio

Sun 6/14 at Constellation

Bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Eric McPherson are precise, creative accompanists who’ve respectively enhanced the works of avant-garde pianists Vijay Iyer and Andrew Hill. Crump is also a purposeful and individual composer; on Earth Day at Constellation, he presented Slow Water, a chamber-jazz suite that ponders the power and perseverance of the titular element. But when you put him with McPherson, they’re instant cocomposers. Between 2017 and 2024 these veteran New York musicians refined their approach with pianist Kris Davis in Borderlands Trio, whose completely improvised music was cohesive and ever evolving. When Davis paused that ensemble, McPherson and Crump quickly recruited alto saxophonist Darius Jackson to be their partner in Otherlands Trio. Though Jones tends to choose clearly defined sound worlds for the groups he leads, he fits quite naturally into Crump and McPherson’s spontaneous approach on the trio’s debut CD, October’s Star Mountain (Intakt). Otherlands Trio sound as fluent compacting martial rhythms and snaky lines on the pithy, pungent “Lateral Line” as they do cutting a fluidly shifting trail on the long, winding “Metamorpheme.” The saxophonist’s harmonic footprint is narrower than a pianist’s would be, which makes it easier than ever to savor McPherson and Crump’s empathetic give and take.

https://chicagoreader.com/music/concert-preview/otherlands-trio-constellation/

Michael Formanek Thriving in his New Digs

The bassist and composer reflects on his new Intakt Records release and his recent move abroad.

Since COVID, there has been a steady trickle of jazz musicians emigrating from the United States to Portugal. Alto saxophonist John O’Gallagher was one of the first American musicians to make the move to Lisbon in 2021. Brooklyn-born, Grammy-winning keyboardist-composer-producer and ’80s Miles Davis collaborator Jason Miles followed in November 2022. Pianist Aaron Parks moved with his family to Lisbon at the beginning of 2024. Other musicians relocating to Portugal in recent years include British saxophonists Andy Sheppard (2016) and Julian Argüelles (2021) and American drummer Jeff Williams (2023).

Bassist, composer and bandleader Michael Formanek left for Portugal with his wife, photographer Sandy Eisner, in May of 2023, settling in the rustic village of Paú in Torres Vedras, about 45 minutes from Lisbon. He’s been thriving in his New Digs, the name of his fifth album for the Zurich-based Intakt Records and 25th overall as a leader or co-leader (including seven with Thumbscrew, the cooperative trio he formed in 2014 with guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara).

A native of Pacifica, California, Formanek began his professional career in the Bay Area as a teenage sideman to the likes of Joe Henderson, Eddie Henderson, Art Pepper and Tony Williams, before relocating to New York in 1978 at the age of 20. Through the ’80s and ’90s he played a pivotal role on the Big Apple jazz scene, leading his own bands, collaborating with such musical renegades as Tim Berne, Marty Ehrlich, Jim Black, James Emery and Jack Walrath, and working as a sideman to living legends like Chet Baker, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Konitz and Toshiko Akiyoshi.

In 2001 Formanek moved to Baltimore and accepted a part-time teaching position in the newly founded jazz department at the Peabody Conservatory. He later moved to Towson, Maryland when the job became full-time.

New Digs, recorded at a studio just seven minutes away from Formanek’s home, is a remarkable septet offering that deftly straddles exacting compositions and pure improvisation. Joined by his Thumbscrew colleagues Halvorson and Fujiwara, Lisbon residents O’Gallagher and trumpeter João Almeida, along with Montreal-born, Brooklyn-based tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas and Oxford, UK–based pianist Alexander Hawkins (playing Hammond B-3 exclusively on this session), Formanek radically pushes the envelope on what an organ group can sound like.

A lifetime ago, when we were both living in Manhattan, I wrote the liner notes for Formanek’s 1990 debut as a leader, Wide Open Spaces, on the Enja label (with Greg Osby, Wayne Krantz, Mark Feldman and Jeff Hirshfield). Now from an ocean away, the ever-evolving 68-year-old’s music sounds just as potent and penetrating and visionary.

Our conversation was edited for length and clarity.

You’ve amassed such an expansive discography and played in so many different settings, from small groups to your 19-piece Ensemble Kolossus. I remember seeing you perform material from The Distance with that big band at an ECM showcase during the 2016 Winter Jazz Festival. On the other end of the spectrum from that is the intimate duo album you recoded with your son Peter on saxophone (Dyads, Out of Your Head Records, 2021).
Yeah, we recorded that just before the pandemic, in 2019. Peter had been into music and improvising since he was a little kid. And when we were living in Baltimore, friends would come down to play gigs in town — Jim Black, Tim Berne, Marty Ehrlich. They’d come over and hang out at the house and we’d always end up playing and jamming.

Peter was a pretty good guitar player in his early teens and he could really shred some metal. He mostly had that kind of heavy groove going on, but he could solo too. But he would sit at any instrument and just play it. He eventually gravitated to saxophone. Then when he was a little older, for his 18th birthday, I did a gig at Cornelia Street Café with Jim Black, Jacob Sacks, Tim Berne, myself and Peter playing a bunch of my music. So music was always going on with him.

He later went to school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and when he graduated in 2017 we decided to do something together, so I set up a little Midwest tour for us in 2019. And then he came for a visit over the holidays that year where we were living in West Orange, New Jersey. And I said, “Let’s just go in the studio for a day and we’ll see what we get.” So we went into Sound on Sound Studios in Manhattan and recorded what ended up as Dyads. It’s mostly improvised, though we also played a few tunes — some of his tunes, a few mine.

He’s not playing that much now. His life’s kind of gone in some different directions. So I’m really glad I had such a strong feeling about wanting to document that part of our relationship.

Where did you record New Digs?
We recorded that one about seven minutes from where I...

Omni (Intakt CD 457) zeigt das JAMES BRANDON LEWIS QUARTET mit Aruán Ortiz am Piano, Brad Jones am Bass und Chad Taylor an Drums mit genug 'Fire in my Bones' für 'The Sermon', für 'Testify' und um viele mitzureißen, den 'Spirit of the living God' zu verehren. Jenen Geist, den alte Bücher, alte Kulte ausmalen als eine unendliche Kugel, deren Mittelpunkt überall und deren Umfang nirgends ist, als 'omnipotent', 'omniscient' und 'omnipresent'. Lewis zeichnet das nach, das Allmächtige allein und demütig mit weichem Pinsel, das Allwissende mit noch zartem Pizzicato. Als Sohn eines Baptistenpredigers und nun selber Prediger mit dem Saxophon, als Zwölfton-Gospeler im pfingstlichen Kreis. "Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher" hieß es einst bei James Blood Ulmer, wobei das Quartet mit seinem inspirierten Feuer über Soul Jazz, Blues und Funk hinausflammt. Feurig genug für immer rasanteren, immer schneller wirbelnden Tanz. Wobei 'Testify' downtempo noch gewichtiger swingt, mit markanten Griffen von Ortiz. 'Call to Worship' ruft und ehrt Blitz und Donner, mit sonorem Bogenstrich, feierlich getragenem Tenorsaxsang, summenden Fingern, über den Texten sinnendem Piano. 'Line Upon Line' entbrennt in rhythmisierter, aufschreiender Begeisterung, dem Himmel nicht schnell genug nah genug. Taylor raddampfert stromaufwärts zur Quelle, an Bord kleinlaut bangende Sünder. Lewis und Ortiz entfalten ihr halbes Leben, als wollten sie dem allwissenden Ohr doch noch einige vertrackte Details erläutern, in denen auf Erden der Teufel steckt. Lewis scheut sich nicht, dem Großen Geist ein Ohr abzukauen und auch Taylor redet sein Wörtchen mit, mit Beats. Doch vorerst zählt doch nur die Zärtlichkeit, die man sich wechselseitig erweist, mit einem Rosenkranz des Pianos, klickenden Cymbals, singendem Pizzicato und einer zartbitteren Melodie von Lewis. [BA 134 rbd]

Pianist Alexander Hawkins hat in den unterschiedlichsten Besetzungen gespielt. Neben einigen Solo-Aufnahmen gibt es Einspielungen von ihm im Duo, im Trio, oder im Quartett. Nun liegt mit „No Nation But Imagination“ eine furiose Quintett-Produktion vor. Nachdem die Band am 02. Februar des letzten Jahres im legendären Café Oto in London aufgetreten war, versammelten sich Rhodri Davies (Harfe), Nicole Mitchell (Flöte), Matthew Wright (Turntables und Live Sampling), Hamid Drake (Schlagzeug) und Autodidakt Hawkins (Klavier, Synthesizer, Sampler) tags darauf in den Fish Factory Studios von London. Dieses Album enthält Auszüge aus dem Live-Auftritt, als auch aus der Studio-Sitzung vom 03. Februar 2025.
An diesen Orten ist die vielleicht reifste, auf jeden Fall maßgeblichste Musik entstanden, die Hawkins bisher eingespielt hat. Der Brite spannt auf „No Nation But Imagination" einen weiten, in sich schlüssigen Bogen, von seinen individuellen kompositorischen Strukturen, über die Traditionen westafrikanischer Musik, die historischen Einflüsse von John Coltrane und Muhal Richard Abramson und natürlich die improvisatorischen Umsetzungen und musikalischen Philosophien der einzelnen Mitglieder seiner Band. Akustische Leitmotive, elektronische Selbstverständlichkeiten, sich wiederholende, an Rituale erinnernde Endlosschleifen zeugen von einer ständig pulsierenden, sich erneuernden Dynamik. Energiereich und doch voller Poesie ist diese Gruppenarbeit, radikal und respektvoll im Miteinander, solistisch herausfordernd und völlig plausibel in der Umsetzung. Hawkins sagte 2023 in einem Interview sinngemäß, dass im Jazz viel Wert auf eine virtuose Spieltechnik gelegt wird. Konzepte und Ideen kämen dabei leider zu kurz. „No Nation But Imagination“ bringt zielgenau zum Ausdruck, was er damit meint. Komplexe Musik, die tief berührt und jede Menge Wagnis und Spannung bietet.

https://www.kultkomplott.de/Artikel/Musik/#article_anchor_3954

Schon immer verstand es der US-amerikanische Bassist Michael Formanek, die ultimativen Musiker für seine außergewöhnlichen Kompositionen um sich zu scharen. Sein jüngster Septett-Geniestreich beginnend mit dem Thema "New Old World" überzeugt mit frischem, zwischen Hardbop und freien Assoziationen changierenden Aktionen der beiden Saxofonisten John O'Gallagher und Chet Doxas. Die völlig unbekümmert stilistische Barrieren durchquerende Gitarristin Mary Halvorson und Alexander Hawkins' mystische, fernab vom Soul Jazz agierende Hammond-B 3 Beiträge sind frappierend. Und Tomas Fujiwaras Beats komplettieren den famosen Ensemble-Sound.

Am 22.8.2022 ist der Drummer Fredy Studer gestorben, kurz vor der Veröffentlichung von „50“ zur Feier der fünf Jahrzehnte mit OM. Für die Jubiläums-Tour sprang Gerry Heming­way ein (und bei zwei Terminen Tony Buck). Und für die alten OMs, Christy Doran an E-Gitarre, Bobby Burri am Kontrabass und Urs Leimgruber an Sopranosax, wurde aus der Notlösung ein neues Kapitel, mit einer Konzertreihe im Dezember 2024, mit Südpol (Intakt CD 455) als Mitschnitt des Auftritts im 'Südpol' in Luzern (und einer bereits für Ende 2026 organisierten OM/SÜDPOL-Live-Zukunft, denn Leimgruber hat mittlerweile eine neue Lunge). Mit 'Fast Line', 'P-M-F/B', 'A Frog Jumps In / Im Unterholz bei Kyjiv' und 'Behind the Eye' aktualisierten die Veteranen mit den beiden Drummern Stoff von „50“. Leimgruber musste dabei gleich an seine Schmerzgrenze gehen, „give me some air!“ Von de profundis bis altissimo und im Absturz in leise, unheimliche Elegie ist der Schmerz über Studers Fehlen mit auf der Bühne. Mit Trauerbass, eskalierender gitarristischer Eeriness und perkussiver Unruhe, die sich zu schriller Sopranistik donnernd und hagelnd steigert. OM is about survival of the spirit – Orpheus-Spirit, Coltrane-Spirit, Studer-Spirit. Mit 'Gamelan' offerierten sie eine neue Kopfgeburt von Doran, die dongend ans Tageslicht dämmert, über die Gitarrensaiten tonleitert und zu tagträumerischem Tamtam helldunkel sopraniert, hin zu tänzerischer Vitalität. 'PMF' bringt infektiöse rhythmische Burri-Reihen, die Gitarre twangt, bebt, klingt durch Devices akkordeonistisch. Das Soprano ist tütütüüü, tirili-iii auch dada da. Und die Drummer dosieren einen dezenten Groove zum spitzen iii, bis sie mit Burris wiederkehrendem Powwow den Kreis schließen. Leimgruber teilt die ukrainische Froschperspektive in kakophonster Atemlosigkeit. Becken rauschen, Saiten flirren, der Bass unkt, Gong dongt, Sound quallt, Urs quä-quäkt. So schält sich allmählich ein Kyjiw'scher Überlebens-Groove heraus, den Bassnoise jedoch vernebelt, zu sopranistischem Mitgefühl und metallischem Klirren. Zuletzt harfen, scharren, ruckeln Doran und Burri Klangwellen, Urs stößt ins Horn. Doch der Konsens zerfällt in stripsodistische Sounds, prickelig, wetzend, crashend. Und fasst wieder Tritt, tutend, gilfend. Cut! Statt Veteranen-Latein avant und fordernd wie eh und je. [BA 134 rbd]

Improvisierte Musik:
Alexander Hawkins
Er zählt zu den überraschendsten
Avantgardisten der Gegenwart.
Alexander Hawkins (45)
aus Oxford ist ein Pianist
mit
offenen Ohren für Vergangenheit,
Gegenwart und Zukunft.
Er ist ein Meister der Improvisation,
dessen Musik aber
stets verständlich bleibt. Nun
mischt er mit Flötistin, Harfenist
und Electro-Tüftler Traditionen
zwischen Jazz, afrikanischer
Urmusik und Playstation
auf. Welch aufgeweckte Musik!