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

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

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/

"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

Someone seeking the difference between Free Jazz and Jazz that is played freely might turn to these quartet sessions led by a tenor saxophonist. While the separation may seem hair splitting – or maybe reed shaving – carful listening reveals a profound split. Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Pereleman and his American associates, pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker and drummer Bobby Kapp are pure improvisation veterans. That means Synesthesia’s five lengthy are based as much on passion ads precision. Creative music that starts and ends somewhat unexpectedly.

Meanwhile American tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis as well as fellow Americans bassist Bred Jones and drummer Chad Taylor as well as Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz bring a similar level of emotion and expertise to Omni’s mostly shorter tracks. But the Lewis-composed pieces have a definite thought-out shape and sensibility. While intensity suffused sensibility means the playing is as exciting as on the other disc, there’s no thought that these aren’t songs, rather than one stop in an infinite expressive journey.

With rumbles and rat tat tats from Kapp, whose Free Jazz credentials go back to the early 1970s, Synesthesia is launched, with the drummer soon spelled by descending piano pounding and altissimo cries and multiphonics from Perelman turned to triple tonguing in tandem with Shipp’s keyboard stretches. Quartet members often work together when not involved in other projects. So it’s not unexpected for a track like “Blue Taste” to be introduced by Parker’s thick bass string pumps. Besides maintaining a consistent pulse here and on other tracks and thus linearity, his long-time partnership with Shipp in bands like David S Ware’s is advanced as the two evolve together. That means Parker’s skill toughens Shipp’s output as the pianist scoots from processional chording and pedal point pressure upwards to slippery treble note emphasis and single note interludes. Diffuse identities also characterize “Blue Taste” when the saxophonist’s initial spastic and shaking split tones settle into a breathy tête-à-tête with rugged keyboard pressure. This follows the saxophonist’s earlier emphasis on high pitched whistles and a series of reed squeaks.

Perelman’s seeming infinite collection of tropes and transitions has its greatest scope on the final and extended “One Sense”. With bass string walks, percussion shuffles and inner piano rumbles the piece slowly takes shape as the saxophonist unfurls individual peeps and beeps that speed up to shaking and wavering tangents of irregular timbres, split tone shakes and note-bending affiliations, Almost at the one-quarter mark, his reed sparing almost reaches Bop inflections, with corresponding mainstream comping from Shipp. Confirming that intense extemporization leaves space for a variety of influences even as the saxophonist’s sound creation plot skyward and fragmented, sequences of swing and even simple nursery rhymes alternate with whiny squalls and tongue stops from the saxophonist. Eventually a chugging bass line, drum rebounds and warm piano projections combine when elevated reed motifs descend to mid range to complete the connection.

If the Synesthesia four make brief allusions to other musics on their discs, then the omnivores on Omni devote entire tracks to what all intents and purposes are Blues and gospel contrafacts. For instance “Call to Worship” undulates on top of a thick woody bass line, cymbal swishes and pounding kettle drum like echoes as Lewis introduces the magisterial theme before moving to speaking in tongues shaking squeezes and harsh reflux. Reflective piano chording maintain the linear exposition despite contrapuntal arco string buzzes before the offering reaches an expressive climax. The title of “Testify” may sound equally church-like, but the narrative is directed more towards soul music than soul ministry. Featuring a hard drum backbeat, the saxophonist’s reed squeezes, repeat shrieks and renal scoops as well as Ortiz’s keyboard runs sound like a compromise between the soul visions of Brother Joe May and Brother Jack McDuff.

Less earthy and ecclesiastical than these most of the other compositions are comprehensive variants of judicious improvised music where disparate modifications add to evolution, but with enough control to preserve horizontal equity. These range from short forceful tracks built around a single instrument designed to demonstrate what Lewis calls 12-tone gospel to mote extended tone poems.

Fittingly considering Lewis’ background the “Spirit of the Living God” is the most protracted track as the saxophonist moves from whiny split tones and doits to story-telling motifs alternating between tonal reed sentences and twisted breaths, pressurized smears and bursts of irregularly shaped timbres. This boomerang from straight ahead to splintered is aided by a barely there double bass pulse, swift keyboard movements and drum pitter patter.

Overall, this shift among da...

When Nite Bjuti (pronounced Night Beauty), Candice Hoyes, Mimi Jones, and Val Jeanty take to the stage, the surrounding air is charged with energy and anticipation. The trio conjures voices that invoke their ancestral past, and those voices guide them and help to shape and change the future. On Minwi, (Haitian Creole for midnight), Nite Bjuti channels that raw kinetic energy into a highly charged musical experience, an experience that reveals something different to the listener each time they hit play.

Their approach is deeply influenced by author Octavia Butler and her famous quote from Parable of the Sower:

"All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change."

That ideology is central to the trio's spirit and their approach to creating music. Hoyes does not sing the same thing twice; the lyrics are not so much written as they are conjured voices from the past, called on as the vibrations in the room move her to do so. Jones' bass throbs and flows around the words and weaves together with the percussion and turntablism of Jeanty, who in turn can electronically manipulate it all and send it back out into the room, changed.

That change is not a disruption of the composition; it is the composition. Constantly evolving, shifting, and metamorphosing, the band reacts, turns, pivots, and transforms in real time. As they move forward, the change remains the only constant. The music they create refuses to be easily categorized. Is it jazz? Is it a spiritual invocation? Is it free improvisation or experimental soundscapes? It is never just one; it is all simultaneously.

Nowhere is this approach more effective than on "Wombfire," a collaboration with legendary flutist Nicole Mitchell, who is also heavily influenced by Butler's writings and Afrofuturistic view. Mitchell's gorgeous flute adds another intoxicating ingredient to the trio's already potent sonic alchemy. Floating above and weaving together with Hoyes' vocals, they produce a dreamlike state of bliss, one that is both calming and reassuring. A full-length collaboration between these four visionaries will hopefully one day materialize, because it would make for an outstanding album.

In Haitian folklore, Minwi is a sacred hour; it is the period of night when boundaries no longer exist and communication with the spirit world becomes possible. Nite Bjuti taps directly into this sacred space, summoning the voices that help to shape this new magical world alongside them.

It's Easier to imagine the end of the world... (Intakt 459) seufzt ANNA WEBBER im großen Verbund mit Ryan Easter: Trumpet, Yuma Uesaka: Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, S. Sax, Ingrid Laubrock: T./S. Sax, DoYeon Kim: Gayageum, Mary Halvorson: Guitar, David Virel­les: Piano, Chris Tordini: Bass und Ches Smith: Drums & Chimes. Brooklyn macht das möglich. Das titelgebende Zitat lautet vollständig „Es ist leichter, sich das Ende der Welt vorzustellen als das Ende des Kapitalismus“ und flipperte von Fredric Jameson zu Slavoj Žižek zu Mark Fisher zu Webber. Mit 'Corporate Tax as a Percentage of Total Federal Revenue in the US, 1952, 1975, and 1998' zitiert die Saxophonistin aus Vancouver Naomi Klein. 'Agitation as the Goal' greift George Saunders' Kritik an der Manipulations­kraft der (A)sozialen Medien auf. (Much of immediacy's lure rests in the) 'Momentary Com­pensatory Solidities of Imagined Contact with an Imagined Real' bezieht sich auf Anna Kornblus Dia­gnose, dass in der flach und schnelllebig zugerichteten Welt, in der alles sofort verfügbar sein und ständig im Fluss bleiben muss, Reflexion, Ironie und künstleri­scher Distanz ab­handen gekommen sind. 'X (Fourth Future)' bezieht sich auf Peter Frase und den 'De­growth-Kommunismus', für den Kohei Saito plädiert in „Systemsturz. Der Sieg der Natur über den Kapitalismus“ und „Marx im Anthropozän. Ideen für die postkapitalistische Gesellschaft“. Mit (It is in collectivities that we find) 'Reservoirs of Hope and Op­timism' von Angela Davis wird zuletzt der Gegenpol zum grassierenden Narzissmus, Konsumismus und Hirnschiss bestärkt. Alle Stücke nehmen sich 10 bis 15 Min. Zeit für Reflexion und Hoffnung und vermitteln das zugleich. Insistent, mit markanten Röhrenglockenschlä­gen, schrillem Ächzen, fernöstlichem Arpeggio, Regenbogenfarben. Die individuellen State­ments eingebunden in kollektives Stakkato, gemeinsames Träumen, Rumoren und Zu­packen. Mit Piano und vogeligem Flöten jazzig und mitreißend. Als ein­dringliche, ostinate Gegenagitation mit sopranistischer Flügelzange und Gayageum. Mit Kornblu, Lacan, Melancholie, die vom Piano ausgeht, aber konterkariert wird von unfassbarer Trompete, Gepolter, aufgekratztem Alltogether. Mit Pizzicato, jacobinischem Froh­sinn und akzelera­tionistisch rockend geht es gen X. Und zuletzt stiftet die Trompete gegen nochmal disso­nante Röhrenglocke und Sägebass den Optimismus, der das Kollektiv in Schwung bringt und selbst die murrende Kontrabassklarinette ansteckt. Bei Webber stehen Euphorie, Hysterie und Resignation im Raum. Mich alten Miesepeter dürft ihr nicht fragen.

Bescheidene Virtuosen

Die Band, der wir dieses spannende, gut durchdachte und spielerische, höchst vergnügliche Album mit dem Titel «Oracle» verdanken, nennt sich «Co Streiff Russ Johnson Quartet». Tatsächlich ist sie seit ihrer Gründung und ihrer ersten CD «In Cicles» (2011) eine so eng kollegiale Kooperation, die gemeinsame Suche nach diesem Klangvergnügen, dass weder der agilen Zürcher Altsaxophonistin noch dem amerikanischen Trompeter, einem seinerseits an keinem Star-Status interessierten Virtuosen, an alleiniger leadership gelegen war. Mehr noch: dieses Quartetts ist so etwas wie ein fein austariertes Mobile, das in seiner aktuellen Version (nach dem Abgang von Drummer Julian Sartorius) «Co Streiff-Russ Johnson-Chistian Weber-Gerry Hemingway-Quartet» heissen müsste. Sind doch Drummer Hemingway (Wahlschweizer und Professor in Luzern, seit seiner mehr als zehnjährigen Zusammenarbeit mit Anthony Braxton und Gruppen wie «BassDrumBone» als Kapazität omnipräsent) – sind doch Hemingway und der seit Anbeginn beteiligte Zürcher Bassist Christian Weber weit mehr als das, was man eine «Rhythmusgruppe» nennt. In dieser Band ist jeder Solist (auch im Sinn des unbegleiteten Solos), und jeder ist eines jeden Begleiter. So gesehen hat Peter Margasak recht, wenn er in seinen liner notes zum Schluss kommt: «Diese Musik hat etwas erfrischend Ehrliches und Bescheidenes an sich».

In die sechs Kompositionen teilen sich Streiff und Johnson. Alle sind sie rhythmisch scharf konturiert und melodisch mitreissend, in längeren unisono gezogenen Linien und in kollektiven wie solistischen Improvisationsflügen. Johnson beherrscht die Kunst der schnellen, aber immer strukturierten Phrasierung eines Clifford Brown. Aber er hat auch seinen eigenen herzwarmen Ton.

Die Verbindung von Virtuosität und strukturell vertiefter Emotion ist eine Quadratur des Kreises. Sie macht die Musik dieses Albums insgesamt aus. Ihr Antrieb und immer überraschender spiritus rector ist der fabelhaft musikalische Gerry Hemingway an der Seite des ebenso fundamentalen wie beweglichen Christian Weber. Vieles an diesem Quartett erinnert an das frühe von Ornette Coleman und Don Cherry. Die Besetzung ohne Piano oder Gitarre, versteht sich. Wohl aber auch die explosive Lebensfreude dieser organisierten freien Musik überhaupt.

Co Streiff Russ Johnson Quartett (Christian Weber, Gerry Hemingway): Oracle. Intakt CD 458

Peter Rüedi

English translation

Modest Virtuosos

The band we have to thank for this exciting, well-thought-out, playful and thoroughly enjoyable album, titled “Oracle,” calls itself the “Co Streiff Russ Johnson Quartet.” In fact, ever since its founding and its first CD, “In Circles” (2011), it has been such a closely collegial partnership, a shared search for this pleasure in sound, that neither the agile Zürich alto saxophonist nor the American trumpeter, a virtuoso with no interest in star status himself, has cared about sole leadership. More than that: this quartet is something like a finely balanced mobile, which in its current version (after the departure of drummer Julian Sartorius) ought really to be called the “Co Streiff–Russ Johnson–Christian Weber–Gerry Hemingway Quartet.” For drummer Hemingway (a Swiss resident by choice and a professor in Lucerne, an omnipresent authority since his more than ten years of collaboration with Anthony Braxton and with groups such as BassDrumBone) and the Zürich bassist Christian Weber, who has been involved from the start, are far more than what one calls a “rhythm section.” In this band, everyone is a soloist (in the sense of the unaccompanied solo, too), and everyone accompanies everyone else. Seen this way, Peter Margasak is right when he concludes in his liner notes: “There is something refreshingly honest and modest about this music.”

Streiff and Johnson share the six compositions between them. All are rhythmically sharply contoured and melodically gripping, in long lines played in unison and in collective as well as solo flights of improvisation. Johnson has mastered the art of fast but always structured phrasing in the manner of Clifford Brown. But he also has his own warm-hearted tone.

Combining virtuosity with structurally deepened emotion is like squaring the circle. It defines the music of this album as a whole. Its driving force and ever-surprising spiritus rector is the fabulously musical Gerry Hemingway, alongside Christian Weber, who is as fundamental as he is agile. Much about this quartet recalls the early Ornette Coleman–Don Cherry quartet. The line-up without piano or guitar, of course. But above all, also the explosive joie de vivre of this organized free music in general.

Co Streiff Russ Johnson Quartet (Christian Weber, Gerry Hemingway): Oracle. Intakt CD 458

Weltreisen auf dem Saxofon

Co Streiff zählt zu den arriviertesten und zugleich frischesten Stimmen des Schweizer Jazz. Nun ist die Saxofonistin mit neuem Album auf Tournee.

Privat hat sie es nur von Zürich ins aargauische Jonen geschafft. Mit ihrer Musik aber ist Co Streiff auf der ganzen Welt unterwegs. Die 67-jährige Saxofonistin hat früh schon Afrika und Asien bereist, wo sie etwa mit ihrer Band Kadash spielte. Ihren avantgardistischen Ansatz schulte sie im Zusammenspiel mit Pianistin Irène Schweizer oder der französischen Bassistin Joëlle Léandre. Den transatlantischen Brückenschlag vollzog sie spätestens 2009, als sie mit Trompeter Russ Johnson aus New York ein Quartett gründete.

Mit dieser Formation legt Streiff nun das zweite Album «Oracle» vor. Indem sie Möglichkeiten der Verbindung zwischen Sax und Trompete sowie zwischen Tradition und Gegenwart des freien Jazzschaffens ausloten, laden Streiff und Johnson ein zu musikalischen Weltreisen. Mit dem Zürcher Kontrabassisten Christian Weber und US-Drummer Gerry Hemingway gehen sie jetzt auf Tournee.

Erstaunlich, wie allgegenwärtig Camila Nebbia geworden ist, mit Chris Corsano, mit ihrem Projekt →The Hanged One, mit DaughterDaugher. Dank Relative Pitch, aber weit darüber hinaus. So ist die argentinische Saxerin mit Kit Downes an Piano & Hammond Organ und Andrew Lisle an Drums, nach ihrem Debut mit „Exhaust“ (RPR1225), nun als EXHAUST auf Intakt gelandet. Treffpunkt dafür war Berlin, wobei man sich den Aktionsradius auch von Downes, von Shadowlands über Enemy bis Nicolas Leirtrø's Action Now!, als entgrenzt vorstellen muss. Liles seinerseits kann es besonders gut mit Colin Webster, Dirk Serries und John Edwards, doch im Partnertausch auch so wie man es auf All the Beauties and Disasters (Intakt 460) hört. Mit 'Complicated Matters of Presence' deuten sie Geistes­gegenwart und Instantaneität als das sine qua non ihres Spiels an. Mit 'Three Heads in One' ihr Miteinandervertrautsein. Die Lust auf Erweiterungen und neue Nuancen ließen Downes diesmal sogar zum Cello greifen. Andere greifen ins Innenklavier, er zu Orgel und Bowing. Ihr Brainstorming im Verbund mit moto­rischer Intelligenz zeitigt zärtliche und raue Turbulenzen. Nebbia geht der Mund über, Downes klimpert und hämmert Myriaden von Perlen und Splittern, Lisle tockelt, kollert, flickert zugleich Klänge und Beats und das in allen Farben und perkussiven Nuancen. Bei 'Crawl Into the Light' kommt das Cello ins sprudelige, ja panische Spiel. Mit solchem Pollock auf Speed und weiteren rasanten Ka­priolen kontrastiert 'Reversed Magician' mys­tisch dröhnend, mit Hammond, und Nebbia ganz leise. Und 'Skoda Allstars' mit nochmal Bogenstrichen und rumorenden Cymbals. Bei 'Pram Axis' schaukelt eher ein Boot als ein Kinderwagen. Doch das Titelstück bringt final nochmal fiebrige Action und schönen Schlamassel.

Virtuos und bescheiden

Die Band, der wir dieses spannende, gut durchdachte und spielerische, höchst vergnügliche Album mit dem Titel «Oracle» verdanken, nennt sich Co Streiff Russ Johnson Quartet. Tatsächlich ist sie seit ihrer Gründung und ihrer ersten CD, «In Circles» (2011), eine so eng kollegiale Kooperation, die gemeinsame Suche nach diesem Klangvergnügen, dass weder der agilen Zürcher Altsaxofonistin noch dem amerikanischen Trompeter, einem seinerseits an keinem Starstatus interessierten Virtuosen, an alleiniger Leadership gelegen war. Mehr noch: Dieses Quartett ist so etwas wie ein fein austariertes Mobile, das in seiner aktuellen Version (nach dem Abgang von Drummer Julian Sartorius) Co-Streiff-R ...

https://weltwoche.ch/story/virtuos-und-bescheiden/

**USA und CH: Das Gipfeltreffen**

Die Zürcher Altsaxofonistin Co Streiff und der amerikanische Trompeter Russ Johnson kennen sich seit 2004; ihr gemeinsames Quartett besteht seit 2009. Am Kontrabass agiert von Beginn an Christian Weber. In der Formation, die 2012 das formidable Album «In Circles» herausbrachte, sass Julian Sartorius am Schlagzeug; nun ist es der Wahlluzerner Gerry Hemingway. «Oracle», das neue, im April 2023 live aufgenommene Album der Band, bietet so sinnlichen wie intelligenten Jazz: Mit ausgefuchsten Bläsersätzen, hellwachem Interplay und fein abgestufter Dynamik schreibt es die Pionierarbeit von Ornette Coleman und Don Cherry fort. (pap.)

**USA and CH: The Summit Meeting**

Zurich alto saxophonist Co Streiff and American trumpeter Russ Johnson have known each other since 2004, and their joint quartet has existed since 2009. Christian Weber has been on double bass from the start. In the line-up that released the formidable album «In Circles» in 2012, Julian Sartorius was at the drums; now it is Gerry Hemingway, a Lucerne resident by choice. «Oracle», the band's new album, recorded live in April 2023, offers jazz that is as sensuous as it is intelligent: with cunning horn arrangements, wide-awake interplay and finely graded dynamics, it carries forward the pioneering work of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. (pap.)

Ne vous arrêtez pas sur ce nom à la consonance un rien rébarbative. Derrière lui, se cache un trio multinational slovène suédois allemand réunissant la pianiste Kaja Draksler, le contrebassiste Petter Eldh et le batteur Christian Lillinger. Il y a cinq ans, nous avions été séduits par « Somit » que nous avions présenté dans nos pages, un disque axé sur une écriture vive, cursive et alerte. Ce nouvel album, enregistré l’année dernière à Berlin, confirme la belle complicité que ces trois-là entretiennent. Chacun prend à tour de rôle l’initiative de la composition. Une grosse dizaine de morceaux bien ficelés qui nous emmènent hors du canevas rabâché de la formule piano/basse/batterie. Le jeu de Draksler se révèle plein d’audaces, de malices, n’hésitant pas à faire entrer la dissonance pour colorer ses motifs à certains endroits. La basse d’Eldh courbe, bombe les angles. Elle est puissante en diable. Eldh, qui va également puiser dans l’héritage de son pays pour y extraire un hymne suédois traditionnel du seizième siècle qu’il revisite de manière très subtile. Aux fûts, Lillinger emmène, véhicule tant qu’il peut. Une frappe parfois métronomique, parfois lunatique comme sur « Vrt » qui clôt l’album et dont la traduction du slovène de ce mot signifierait un jardin… vert et luxuriant. Une image fort à propos s’il en est.

https://jazzmania.be/punkt-vrt-plastik-kompress/

SWR NEWJazz Meeting: Camila Nebbia
Camila Nebbia Bei seiner Premiere 1966 hieß dieses Treffen noch SWF Free Jazz Meeting, 1973 nannte es der damalige Jazzredakteur des Südwestfunks, Joachim-Ernst Berendt, in SWF New Jazz Meeting um. Doch die ursprüngliche Intention, regelmäßig Improvisationskünstler:innen aus aller Welt nach Baden-Baden einzuladen und sie einige Tage lang wie in einem Versuchslabor an der Musik arbeiten zu lassen, wurde beibehalten. In den zurückliegenden sechs Jahrzehnten nahmen unter anderem Albert Mangelsdorff, das Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry, Irène Schweizer, Norma Winstone, Anthony Braxton, Django Bates, Joachim Kühn, Sylvie Courvoisier, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Ingrid Laubrock oder Melissa Aldana an einem dieser Meetings teil. Seit acht Jahren wird das SWR NEWJazz Meeting als Biennale ausgetragen, zuletzt wurden der Bassist Lukas Kranzelbinder 2018, die Vibrafonistin Sasha Berliner 2021 (wegen der Corona-Pandemie um ein Jahr verschoben), der Pianist Micah Thomas 2022 und der Bassist Pascal Niggenkemper 2024 als Kurator:innen benannt.

Kürzlich gab die SWR-Jazzredaktion die diesjährige künstlerische Leiterin bekannt: die argentinische, in Berlin lebende Saxofonistin, Komponistin und Videokünstlerin Camila Nebbia. 1987 in der Buenos Aires geboren, studierte Nebbia klassisches und Jazzsaxofon und entdeckte die Musik des Free-Jazz-Pioniers Ornette Coleman ebenso wie Aufnahmen ihres Landsmannes Gato Barbieri. 2020 zog sie nach Europa, wo sie sich mit zeitgenössischer Performancekunst und elektronischer Musik beschäftigte, bevor sie 2022 nach Berlin zog, wo sie Teil der internationalen Improv-Szene wurde. Ihre Musik ist oftmals radikal im Ausdruck, sie erstreckt sich dynamisch weit von eruptiven, lauten Passagen bis hinab zu leisen, fast unhörbaren Momenten. Aller Geräuschhaftigkeit in ihrem Spiel auf dem Tenorsaxofon zum Trotz besitzt ihr Sound stets einen melodischen Duktus. Auslöser für ihr Schaffen sind gerne Gedichte unterschiedlicher Lyriker:innen, in ihrer Musik setzt sie sich oftmals mit Themen wie Identitätssuche in der Diaspora auseinander, ihre Konzerte inszeniert sie auch als audiovisuelle Aufführungen, deren Klang- und Bildebenen gleichermaßen aufeinander reagieren wie sie sich kontrastieren.

So will Nebbia auch ihr SWR NEWJazz Meeting anlegen. Mit einem international besetzten Quintett (unter anderem mit der Pianistin Marta Warelis und der Harfenistin Kathrin Pechlof) wird sie zusammen mit dem Visual-Artist Andro Manzoni ihre Komposition „only the stones along the path told me the truth of reality“ vom 5. bis 9. Oktober im SWR-Studio Freiburg als ein Werk über Vergänglichkeit und Migration einstudieren. Seine Premiere hat Nebbias Stück dann am 10. Oktober im Rahmen von Enjoy Jazz im Kulturzentrum dasHaus in Ludwigshafen, eine weitere Aufführung gibt es am 11. Oktober in der Manufaktur in Schorndorf.

https://www.jazzthing.de/news/2026-9-22-swr-newjazz-meeting-camila-nebbia/

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/david-murray-album-guide

Murray spent many years in Europe, but in the last few years has returned to America. That was announced to the world with his new Quartet, Murray surrounded by the superb young talent of pianist Marta Sanchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Russell Carter (with Kassa Overall often substituting for him). Words like “renewed” and “revived” are wrong for this album; it’s us who have missed out on what he was doing for so long, so there should be no surprise that Murray is as exuberant and emotive as always. That’s who the man is.

from the article: David Murray is History

Progress in the arts—the way new ideas and possibilities are incorporated and keep things moving concurrently with societal changes—generally follows a formula: the avant-gardist stakes out territory beyond the contemporary boundaries of a tradition, then that tradition eventually catches up. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Then there are the rare artists who are both avant-gardists and traditionalists, who single-handedly move things forward with the force of their artistic personalities, bringing the tradition into the avant-garde and thereby hauling tradition with them to whatever aesthetic space they happen to occupy. And that is a good single-sentence description of the masterful contemporary jazz musician David Murray.

Born in Oakland, Murray grew up and came of age in California before moving to New York City in the mid-1970s and joining the loft jazz scene. In that decade, jazz music was dying off in record company offices—if you weren’t Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock, nobody was making any money. But the world, and especially New York, was still full of phenomenal musicians. New York was also full of decaying, post-industrial loft buildings without amenities or even working plumbing, but the rents were cheap. That’s essential to the story of post-punk and no wave, but also to new and avant-garde jazz, which not only survived but thrived during the 1970s because musicians found cheap places to live and play (often the same place).

Murray quickly became such an important player with such musical gravity that when the jazz business regained a little life in the 1980s (thanks in large part to the Black Saint/Soul Note labels), Murray was its single most important musician—we’re talking the history of post-WWII modern music and the central story of jazz in the ‘80s. He wasn’t just playing and touring and recording; he was a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet and the organizer of a little big band that maintained a regular residency at Sweet Basil on Seventh Avenue South. The musicians who cycled through that ensemble included Henry Threadgill and Butch Morris.

In the 1970s, it was almost impossible to find a young tenor saxophonist who wasn’t closely following John Coltrane’s sound, if not his path. Murray was and remains the exception, putting together a sound and style that boils down to a single word: romance. That made for an unlikely fusion of Albert Ayler and Ben Webster, the former the great free-spiritual, neo-primativist, the latter a monumental, traditional, buttery balladeer. But both men were playing about love, for God and Jesus and for romantic partners, and thus for life itself, spiritual and sensual, inseparable. And Murray, first and always, is a deeply expressive, personal player who is telling you about life, loving, living.

That voice, coming through Murray’s tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, is one of the most distinctive in jazz history, bar none. There is no one who has ever sounded or played like him. He has few peers in terms of versatility—Murray is at home playing ballads, free jazz, and also slow jams, funk, Latin music, songs from the Grateful Dead catalog, and more—and while his musical career is strewn with multiple generations of close collaborators, no one has come forth to play like him. The musical personality is perhaps too singular to have an influence that doesn’t sound like imitation. Hear this voice on Bandcamp.