Emad Armoush’s Rayhan – Distilled Extractions (Afterday Audio 2025)

By Nick Ostrum
It begins with a whirl of sound, out of which Francois Houle’s clarinet rises to lead the piece into a lively Arabic dance. The rhythm, played or implied, remains, but the horns and strings swing back into a stew of improvisation that recalls, with Middle Eastern inflections, the free jazz fumblings especially of late 1950s/early 1960s Ornette and Don Cherry. They lean toward melody but are also...

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Rob Mazurek - Nestor’s Nest (Keroxen Records, 2025)

By Don Phipps
Rob Mazurek’s solo album Nestor’s Nest is a creative sonic adventure that runs from Native American drum chants to imagined extraterrestrial settings. Known for his trumpet playing and composing skills, Mazurek jettisons bandmates on this go round, choosing instead to create his own soundscapes using Modular Synths, a Moog Sub 37, a PolyEvolver (another type of synthesizer), bells, flutes, and his...

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Virginia Genta @ Moers 2024

The Moers Festival, or "mœrs festival," is an annual international music festival held in Moers, Germany. Founded in 1972 by Burkhard Hennen, it initially focused on free jazz but over the years has expanded its scope to include world and pop music while still inviting many avant-garde jazz musicians. One such musician was Italian saxophonist Virgina Genta - certainly known for her part in the Jooklo Duo with drummer David Vanzan - and the artist in residence at Moers last year.Here is a video of Genta performing with guitarist Bill...

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The Vinny Golia Quintet 2024: Almasty (Nine Winds, 2024) *****

By Paul Acquaro
  Yes, it is a 2024 release, and had I given it proper spins at the proper time, it would have likely ended up on a best-of list of mine. That's my trope though, isn't it ... where was I when this was happening? Luckily, in this case, it still is happening and it happens to be great. LA based Vinny Golia, master of all things woodwind and renowned music educator, has created a top-notch...

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Albert Ayler with Don Cherry - 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed (First Visit-ezz-thetics, 2024)

By Ferruccio Martinotti
Albert Ayler definitely represents one of the ontological arguments for being, you and us, in front of a screen in this very right moment. But no worries, we’re not so dumb or arrogant to pretend to add some miserable lines of ours to explain the Man to such a gotha of colleagues and to the super skilled readers of the Only Blog That Matters. So, trying to keep our battered spaceship at a reasonable distance from the...

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Yes Deer - Everything That Shines, Everything That Hurts (Superpang, 2025)

By Eyal Hareuveni
Danish, Oslo-baed sax player Signe Emmeluth is one of the busiest musicians in the Nordic free music scene, leading her bands Emmeluth's Amoeba and Banshee, playing solo and in duos with Belgian sax player Hanne de Backer and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood, and member of Paal Nilssen-Love’s Circus, Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra, Bonanza of Doom, Andreas Røysum Ensemble, Liv Andrea Hauge Ensemble, and...

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James Brandon Lewis - Apple Cores (ANTI-, 2025)

By Don Phipps
“My work involves the idea of building my own molecule and then allowing myself to give meaning to it,” said tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis in a November 2023 interview with Stewart Smith of the Quietus. In the interview, Lewis expresses his interest in science – describing the DNA Helix as a model for his Molecular Systematic Music system. He expounds, saying “…the transformative experiences...

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Isaiah Collier, William Parker, William Hooker – The Ancients (Eremite, 2025)

By Nick Ostrum
I rarely analyze cover art in reviews, but maybe I should. In this case, the cover consists of a photograph flanked on either side by a firey bundles of wheat (or carpet?) and, below, paintings of a flower and a soft blue bird. Above is the title, The Ancients, crowned by vine scrolls, all in black. This highlights the center photo, in which Isaiah Collier, William Parker, and William Hooker stand...

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Ivo Perelman and Tyshawn Sorey - Parallel Aesthetics (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2025)

By Don Phipps
Freedom is a hallmark of any Ivo Perelman album – a freedom governed only by the interaction he has with his guest artists. Case in point – his double CD recording Parallel Aesthetics with drummer/pianist Tyshawn Sorey – a masterpiece of transitions – fast to slow, soft to loud, rhythmic variations and abrupt changes at a moment’s notice, the way the two musicians listen carefully and respond to each...

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João Madeira "Aqui, Dentro"

This week's Sunday video comes to us via Portuguese bassist João Madeira who recently streamed this multi-media performance: "'Aqui, Dentro #3' is a multidisciplinary performance imagined by João Madeira, who invited Cláudio de Pina and António Jorge Gonçalves on this intrepid journey. João Madeira's original composition for solo double bass solo is fed through the interpretative lens of sound processing by Cláudio de Pina and real-time digital design by António Jorge Gonçalves. "This journey intended to open clearings within the...

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