Reviews that mention Augustí Fernández
December 27, 2018
Agrakal
NotTwo MW 972-2
Augmenting the auditory parameters of the baritone saxophone and clarinet in this one-horn-one-piano-and-percussion recital is Italian reedist Marco Colonna. Colonna, whose experience encompasses the performance of notated music for clarinet, improvisations with the likes of Silvia Bolognesi and Eugenio Colombo and duo concerts featuring himself and poet Alberto Masal, has come up with a unique setting for Agrakal, which is a Cabilian word for the Mediterranean sea. Here the extended techniques displayed by the hefty saxophone are met by equivalent textural extensions by Catalan Agustí Fernández’s piano and Slovenian Zlatko Kaučič drums and percussion. MORE
November 11, 2018
Louisiana Variations
Fundacja Sluchaj FSR 01/2018
Accomplished free improvisations in six sections affirm once again how, this approach has permeated the consciousness of three generations of musicians. Plus the sound’s universality is also communicated. To explain: doubler bassist Barry Guy 70, is British; pianist Agustí Fernández, 64, is Catalan; while trumpet/tenor saxophonist Torben Snekkestad 46, is Norwegian. Expanding the geography, Louisiana Variations, may or may not be named for the American state in which Jazz was purported to be born. Meanwhile the session was recorded in Copenhagen and is available on a Polish label. MORE
September 6, 2018
Agustí Fernández & Johannes Nästesjö
Like Listening with your Fingertips
Konvoj Records KOR 013
William Parker
Lake of Light –Compositions for AquaSonics
Gotta Let It Out GLIO 19 CD
Jordan/Fielder/Futterman/Swell
Masters of Improvisation
Valid Records VR-1016
James Brandon Lewis/Chad Taylor
Radiant Imprints
Off CD 038
Satoko Fujii
This Is It!
Libra 203-049
Something In The Air: The Established Maturity of The Guelph Jazz Festival
By Ken Waxman
MORE
June 11, 2018
May 17 to 19 2018
Cerkno, Slovenia
By Ken Waxman
Forty-one kilometres west of Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, the compact village of Cerkno has been host to a world-class jazz festival for almost a quarter century. Jazz Cerkno 2018 added to the illustrious tradition with three days of notable performances mostly in a specially erected canvas tent, complete with a sophisticated sound system, adjoining the darkened and homey Bar Gabrijel. What was most evident was how musicians from this country of fewer than 2¼-million people, which arguably has benefitted most economically from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, can easily hold their own in the international improvised music scene. MORE
May 12, 2018
Agustí Fernández, Artur Majewski, Rafał Mazur
Spontaneous Soundscapes
NotTwo MW 957-2
Liquid Trio
Plays Bernoulli
Fundacja Sluchaj FSR 08
Although broad-minded in his choice of playing partners, Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández has most often recorded in a trio context, a format he’s comfortable with and which yields dividends when each side of the musical triangle is symmetrical. This is substantiated on the two discs here, recorded about five months apart in cities distant from one another and with different pairs of associates. MORE
May 12, 2018
Plays Bernoulli
Fundacja Sluchaj FSR 08
Agustí Fernández, Artur Majewski, Rafał Mazur
Spontaneous Soundscapes
NotTwo MW 957-2
Although broad-minded in his choice of playing partners, Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández has most often recorded in a trio context, a format he’s comfortable with and which yields dividends when each side of the musical triangle is symmetrical. This is substantiated on the two discs here, recorded about five months apart in cities distant from one another and with different pairs of associates. MORE
January 20, 2018
MusikKultur St, Johann in Tirol December 9 and 10
By Ken Waxman
One of Austria’s most forward-looking cultural series takes place every week in an Alpine valley market town half-way between Innsbruck and Salzburg. St. Johann in Tirol has only about 9,000 residents but for 25 years Musik Kultur St. Johann (MuKu) has hosted a variety of exceptional activities, including at least 20 concerts of improvised music each year as well as the annual Artacts Festival in March.
In early December, MuKu threw itself a two-day silver anniversary party in the Alte Gerberei, a converted tannery, a 20-minute walk from the main town square and the nearby busy ski hill. Showcased were groups featuring British bassist Barry Guy, whose influence extended serendipitously to a club in nearby Munich a few days later. MORE
January 6, 2018
2017 Ballot
Ken Waxman
This year’s 10 best New Releases listed in descending order one-through-ten.
1. Sophie Agnel/Daunik Lazro Marguerite d’Or PâleFou Records FR-CD 21
2. Jason Kao Hwang Sing House Euonymus EU 03
3. Alexander Hawkins Unit[e] AH 1002/3
4. Heliosonic Tone-tette Heliosonic Toneways Vol. 1 ScienSonic Laboratories SS10
5. Tiziano Tononi & Daniele Cavallanti Nexus Experience Nexus!Rudi Records RRJ1035
6. Arashi Semikujira Trost TR 146
7. Harris Eisenstadt Recent Developments Songlines SGL 1620-2 MORE
October 26, 2017
Celebration Ensemble
Fundacja Sluchaj FSR 04/2017
Albert Cirera/Hernâni Fustino/Gabriel Ferrandi/Agustí Fernández
Before the Silence
No Business Records NBCD 96
Having passed the venerable age of 60, Barcelona-area-based pianist Agustí Fernández has been fêted for his prominence on the broadening international improvised music scene. It’s a tribute to his sophisticated musical adroitness that his playing partners now range from Parker (William) to Parker (Evan), without causing a fissure in any situation. Like a director of foreign films who makes the transition to mainstream Hollywood fare, the Catalan pianist has been acclaimed for his adaptability. But like partisan film maker who imports foreign expertise and actors to shore up the local industry, Fernández’s home town concerts often include international partners. Besides confirming his playing and compositional talents, these Fernández discs demonstrate that ideal. MORE
October 26, 2017
Albert Cirera/Hernâni Fustino/Gabriel Ferrandi/Agustí Fernández
Before the Silence
No Business Records NBCD 96
Agustí Fernández
Celebration Ensemble
Fundacja Sluchaj FSR 04/2017
Having passed the venerable age of 60, Barcelona-area-based pianist Agustí Fernández has been fêted for his prominence on the broadening international improvised music scene. It’s a tribute to his sophisticated musical adroitness that his playing partners now range from Parker (William) to Parker (Evan), without causing a fissure in any situation. Like a director of foreign films who makes the transition to mainstream Hollywood fare, the Catalan pianist has been acclaimed for his adaptability. But like partisan film maker who imports foreign expertise and actors to shore up the local industry, Fernández’s home town concerts often include international partners. Besides confirming his playing and compositional talents, these Fernández discs demonstrate that ideal. MORE
October 21, 2017
A Quietness of Water
NotTwo MW 952-2
Mats Gustafsson/Alfred Vogel
Blow + Beat
Boomslang BOOM 0491
Transmogrifying poetics onto music is a discriminating task on the same level as creating a painting whose title describes concepts that may not be obvious. But Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson has conspired with his confreres here to use titles inspired by two widely different American poets. The five selections on A Quietness of Water, recorded with American trumpeter Peter Evans and Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández take their inspiration from Robert Creeley (1926-2005), who was associated with The Black Mountain School and who combined an academic career with tough poetics. Like a cultivated rose compared to a wild flower, Blow + Beat, seven duets with Austrian drummer Alfred Vogel, takes as its influence Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), the quintessential Beat, know as much for his lifestyle as his verse. MORE
October 11, 2017
A Woman’s Work…
NotTwo MW950-2
Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp
The Art of Perelman-Shipp
Leo Records CD LR 794-799 and 786
Something in the Air: Music Appreciation as a Single Serving or Throughout Several Meals
By Ken Waxman
Marketing considerations aside, how best can a musician mark an important milestone or significant creativity? With recorded music the result is usually multiple discs. In honor of French bassist Joëlle Léandre’s recent 60th birthday for instance, there’s A Woman’s Work … (NotTwo MW950-2), an eight-disc boxed set. Almost six hours of music, the 42 tracks were recorded between 2006 and 2016 with one solo disc and the others intense interaction with such associates as trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo, tenor saxophonist Evan Parker, violist Mat Maneri, guitarist Fred Frith, percussionist Zlatko Kaučič, pianists Agustí Fernández or Irène Schweizer and vocalists Lauren Newton or Maggie Nicols. With improvisers from six different countries working alongside, the bassist’s charm, humor, vigor and adaptability are highlighted. MORE
April 6, 2017
The Blue Shroud
Intakt CD 266
Spontaneous Music Ensemble
Withdrawal (1966/7)
Emanem 5040
By Ken Waxman
Organization and innovation are the concepts most closely associated with British bassist Barry Guy. A classically trained musician, he early on established himself as a masterful soloist in groups led by pianist Howard Riley and others. By his mid-twenties however, Guy, who turns 70 this month, had made in music the same sort of transcendental leap Woody Allen effected in film by demonstrating memorable skills as director as well as actor. Guy’s founding of and compositions for the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra in 1972 demonstrated that precise notation and free-form improvisation could coexist. From then on, like a hyperactive Jekyll and Hyde, the bassist has enthusiastically directed and played with large ensemble while utilizing his string prowess in a dizzying number of smaller bands. MORE
March 27, 2017
Ziran
NotTwo MW 941-2
Ullén/Muller
Into the Staring Town
Creative Sources CS 323 CD
Like seemingly identical pebbles on a path, which reveal singular markings when examined under a microscope, creative music using similar instruments can result is widely dissimilar results, even if the landscape is the same. So it is with these two solid instances of free improv. Although both eschew expected musical trappings, Into the Staring Town’s more customary interactions are the equivalent of observing a raw gem stone being polished to alluring symmetry, while the Ziran alliance includes devices that are comparable to accentuating the uncut properties of a raw diamond. MORE
November 21, 2016
Marianne
Vector VSO 18
Figuratively carrying the Catalan flag as effectively as if he was doing so in the Olympics, pianist Agustí Fernández has become the most recognized improviser from that autonomous region within Spain, plus arguable the county’s best-known Jazz musician. But that doesn’t means he’s a man alone. While for various reasons – most of them spelled Franco – Spain doesn’t have a long Jazz history; it has been catching up in recent decades. The second CD by this aggregation, Marianne pairs the pianist with two other Catalan improvisers for a rousing exercise in free-form music. Tenor saxophonist Albert Cirera now lives in Lisbon where he leads his own groups and plays with the likes of bassist Hernani Faustino and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Drummer Ramon Prats works with locals as well as international visitors including saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Seamus Blake. MORE
November 11, 2016
Barry Guy Blue Shroud Band Small Formations
Tensegrity
NotTwo MW938-2
Mats Gustafsson’ Peace & Fire
At Porgy & Bess
Trost Records TR 140
Keith Rowe/John Tilbury
enough still not to know
SOFA 548
Mopomoso Tour 2013
Making Rooms
Weekertoft 1-4
Something In The Air: Multi-Disc Box Sets Offer Depth As Well As Quantity
By Ken Waxman
When a CD box of improvised music appears it customarily marks a critical occasion. So it is with these recent four-disc sets. One celebrates an anniversary tour by nine of London’s most accomplished improvisers. Another collects small group interactions in Krakow by musicians gathered to perform as an orchestra. A third is a souvenir of concerts celebrating Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s 50th birthday. Finally enough still not to know captures extended improvisations by pianist John Tilbury and table-top guitarist Keith Rowe, who have worked with one another on-and-off for 40 years. MORE
November 6, 2016
Barry Guy Blue Shroud Band Small Formations
Tensegrity NotTwo MW938-2
By Ken Waxman
Rather like viewing short films made during breaks from the larger project by participants in a feature, Tensegrity preserves small-group sets that took place in the evenings following rehearsals of Barry Guy’s Blue Shroud orchestral project. Recorded at Krakow’s Jazz Autumn in November 2014, the four CDs consist of 26 performances that confirm the adaptability of the band’s 14 members. With the exception of two tracks featuring violinist Maya Homburger, sounds are all improvised. The skill and sophistication of the players from Greece, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, France, the US and the UK, demonstrated that, cross-border musical interchange works more successfully than political alliances. MORE
October 11, 2015
Fortress
Discordian 061
Johannes Nästejö/Agustí Fernández
Johannes Nästejö/Agustí Fernández
Konvoj KOR 007
For the past two decades, Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández has shown that he’s comfortable improvising in just about any circumstance – from solo to big band. But one of his most favored ensembles is the duo. Stepping into the musical ring with an acknowledged heavyweight of the Free Music world can’t be easy, but Swedish bassist Johannes Nästejö and fellow Catalan alto and baritone saxophonist Don Malfon acquit themselves admirably on these sessions. There are no knock-outs, just mutual satisfaction. MORE
October 11, 2015
Johannes Nästejö/Agustí Fernández
Johannes Nästejö/Agustí Fernández
Konvoj KOR 007
Agustí Fernández/Don Malfon
Fortress
Discordian 061
For the past two decades, Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández has shown that he’s comfortable improvising in just about any circumstance – from solo to big band. But one of his most favored ensembles is the duo. Stepping into the musical ring with an acknowledged heavyweight of the Free Music world can’t be easy, but Swedish bassist Johannes Nästejö and fellow Catalan alto and baritone saxophonist Don Malfon acquit themselves admirably on these sessions. There are no knock-outs, just mutual satisfaction. MORE
July 6, 2015
Ring Ring
By Ken Waxman
Try to imagine any North American TV network telecasting a performance by Charles Gayle that’s simultaneously broadcast on radio and via live streaming. Impossible, right? But that’s exactly what took place mid-way through the annual Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade Serbia. Facing an enthusiastic studio audience, Gayle on piano and tenor saxophone plus Polish bassist Ksawery Wojcinski’s subtle string bending and German drummer Klaus Kugel’s aggressive, but un-antagonistic beats played for one hour. This unique programming characterizes Ring Ring (May 19-25) in colorful Belgrade, a city poised between East and West which has been subject to periodic sieges and bombardments since the 14th Century including NATO’s in 1999. Slightly constrained by the studio, Gayle’s tenor saxophone playing was less ferocious than in the past although still characterized by wide vibrato and molten intensity, which was put to good use on a run through of “Ghosts” and during duets with the bassist’s choppy thrusts. A unique pianist, Gayle favored the instrument’s dark register with boogie-woogie allusions, supplemented by his own voicing, which re-harmonized standards like “I’ll Remember You” and “What’s New”, dissected them, eventually revealing the melody, like an X-ray of the skeleton beneath the skin. MORE
March 13, 2015
Hidros 6 - Knockin’
Not Two MW 915
Yves Charuest and Ellwood Epps
La Passe
Small Scale Music SM 005
Pierre Yves Martel/Phillippe Lauzier
Sainct Laurens Volume 2
E-tron Records ETRC 019
Barry Guy
Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett
NoBusiness Records NBEP 2
Something In The Air: Unusual Formats for New Music
By Ken Waxman
Everything old is new again doesn’t go quite far enough in describing formats now available for disseminating music. Not only are downloads and streaming becoming preferred options, but CDs are still being pressed at the same time as musicians experiment with DVDs, vinyl variants and even tape cassettes. Happily the significance of the musical messages outweighs the media multiplicity. MORE
March 8, 2015
Krakow, Poland
November 19-22, 2014
By Ken Waxman
Slightly mangling a metaphor, the world premiere of The Blue Shroud, a major new composition by British bassist Barry Guy, performed by a specially constituted Blue Shroud Band (BSB), was a main course of the musical banquet presented during Krakow’s Jazz Autumn in November. The three nights preceding it, which showcased all 14 members of the BSB in smaller combinations, previewed the varied spices and condiments that went into concocting the final repast; while Guy’s evening of free-form improvisations with American multi-reedist Ken Vandermark – who wasn’t a band member – the following night, was the perfect digestif following the rich fare of The Blue Shroud. MORE
December 16, 2014
Agustí Fernández/Mats Gustafsson
Constellations
Clamshell CR23
Raymond MacDonald & Marilyn Crispell
Parallel Moments
Babel BDV 13125
Despite their perceptible differences – a Scott and an American recorded in a 2010 concert; a Swede and a Catalan recorded in a studio in 2013 – these superlative saxophone-piano duos have more in common throughout their 10-track CDs than the fact that none of the four players accept Jazz’s contemporary status quo.
For despite Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s reputation as an untamed reed explorer as opposed to Glasgow’s Raymond MacDonald as a more classicist Free stylist, when either plays soprano saxophone here, the results are as sensitive as could be from men whose vocabulary long ago internalized the advances of saxophonist as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann. Elsewhere, Gustafsson is suitably bellicose on baritone; and McDonald more abrasive on alto. The other point of congruence is that while American pianist Marilyn Crispell was first known for her rugged style, which aimed to translate Coltrane’s expanded vibrations to the keyboard, she’s quite subdued at the beginning of her duos on this disc; only become more rigorously experimental and percussive as the recital unrolls. In contrast, Catalan Agustí Fernández, who brings matchless so-called classical technique as well as cooperative strategies from working in larger and smaller ensembles, is the soundboard roughneck here. While the American only tries out preparation on her strings in the CD’s penultimate minute, Fernández’s strings and keys are prepped for musical combat from the first. His strokes, plucks, echoes and thrusts not only demand tough ripostes from Gustafsson, but also sonically introduce electronics insinuations. MORE
November 6, 2014
Zlatko Kaučič/Augustí Fernández
Sonic Party
NotTwo MW 912-2
Sten Sandell & Paal Nilssen-Love
Jacana
Rune Grammofon RCD 2159 CD
Recorded live slightly more than a week apart at different European festivals, two accomplished piano-drums duos demonstrate the width and breadth of concentrated improvisations on these discs.
All the players are peripatetic veterans, who have worked with other masters of the genre(s) like saxophonists Peter Brötzmann and Evan Parker; and each set of players brings am individual sensibility to the interface. Perhaps by happenstance the two Southern Europeans – Spanish pianist Augustí Fernández and Slovenian percussionist Zlatko Kaučič Zlatko Kaucic appear more committed to the Jazz tradition, while the two Northern Europeans – Swedish pianist Sten Sandell and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love – operate more within the realm of Free Music. Each approach is equally suitable and significant MORE
June 25, 2014
Amphi, Radio Rondo
Intakt CD 235
Danielle Palardy Roger
Le Caillou
Ambiances Magnetiques AM 215 CD
Modern Art Orchestra Plays the Music of Kristóf Bascó
Circular
BMC CD 204
Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit
First Blow
PNL Records PNL 021
Graham Collier
Luminosity-The Last Suites
Jazzcontinuum GCM 2014
Something In The Air: Translating a Singular Vision to a Large Ensemble
By Ken Waxman
MORE
April 28, 2014
Joe Morris/Agustí Fernández/Nate Wooley
From the Discrete to the Particular
Relative Pitch RPR 008
Fernández/Manouach/Sans
Wry
Clamshell Records CR 13
After establishing himself as almost without question Spain’s most accomplished improvising pianist, Barcelona-based Agustí Fernández maintains an international career as well as a local one. These premium-quality trio discs, featuring completely divergent instrumentation, recorded about nine months apart demonstrate his interactive facility.
With the unique formation of two chordal instruments and one brass, From the Discrete to the Particular captures a New Haven gig matching the pianist with guitarist Joe Morris, with whom he has played frequently and newer collaborator trumpeter Nate Wooley. Brittle and somewhat disconcerting, the contrapuntal scrapes, buzzes and plucks easily inhabit the abstract Free Music sphere. Recorded the next year in Saint Pere de Vilaajor in Catalonia, Wry is a more ferocious program, reuniting Fernández, with drummer Ivo Sans, who with the pianist is one of the 11 members of the Free Art Ensemble, and adding Greek soprano saxophonist Ilan Manouach. Classic Free Jazz trios such as pianist Cecil Taylor’s with saxist Jimmy Lyons and drummer Sunny Murray are suggested here, except that Manouach’s tone is thinner, subtler and more wide-ranging than Lyons’; while Sans is more involved and less overbearing then Murray. MORE
November 8, 2013
Relative Pitch Records
By Ken Waxman
We both feel that every release has been a success,” says Kevin Reilly, co-owner with Mike Panico, of the New York area-based Relative Pitch (RP) record label. “I want to stay away from categorizing our releases according to the parameters of late industrial capitalist consumerism.”
Economic methodology aside, in the less than five years since it was founded, Relative Pitch has already put out 14 well-regarded CDs, featuring younger advanced players such as guitarist Mary Halvorson and trumpeter Nate Wooley, plus veteran free musicians including bassist Joëlle Léandre and saxophonist Urs Leimgruber. MORE
October 24, 2013
Pianoactivity\One
Sirulita 1201
Pat Thomas
Al-Khwarizmi Variations
Fataka 4
Matthew Shipp
Piano Sutras
Thirsty Ear
Julie Sassoon
Land of Shadows
JazzWerkstatt JW 127
Less of a arduous challenge than a literal record of a keyboardist`s skill at a particular point in time, the solo piano disc is still a milestone in the career of any improvising musician. Although much more common than in years past and latterly joined by innumerable other unaccompanied showcases by reed, brass, string and percussion players, the historical heft of a piano disc is still significant. MORE
July 20, 2013
Evan Parker Electrocacoustic Ensemble
Hasselt
psi 12.03
Continuing his rapprochement with electronic currents, British saxophonist Evan Parker has organized a 13-piece ensemble almost equally divided between acoustic and processing instruments. This disc is notable historically, showing how the philosophies of pure electronics and pure acoustics can intersect. Nonetheless the results aren’t too surprising, considering that the majority of players on both sides of the equation are comfortable in both milieus.
Pieced together from performances presented on different nights in concert in Hasselt, Belgium, the CD climaxes with a more-than-half-hour sequence featuring the entire group. However the trio of preceding selections matches players from both sides of the electro-acoustic divide – without Parker – for shorter instant compositions. “Hasselt 1” and “Hasselt 2” are most illustrative, as they aptly demonstrate how a commanding musical personality, pianist Augustí Fernández in the first case and bassist Barry Guy in the second, can dominate the proceedings despite the presence of potentially louder plugged-in instruments. For instance, the Catalan pianist’s high-frequency keyboard sweeps and tremolo string resonations from inside and outside his instrument on the first piece create a swiftly paced narrative that makes Walter Prati’s computer processing a junior improvising partner. In the same way, the subterranean textures from contrabass clarinetist Peter van Bergen and Guy’s double bass on “Hasselt 2” are more ruggedly commanding and percussively directed than the live electronics produced by the FURT duo of Richard Barrett and Paul Obermayer. MORE
January 11, 2013
Agustí Fernández
By Ken Waxman
A complete pianist in every sense of the word who blends exquisite technique with innovative inspiration, Agustí Fernández is arguably Spain’s most accomplished contemporary improviser. This month he’s playing four nights in different configurations at the Stone, a rare series of American dates. “I like all kind of combinations, from duo to big ensembles because each one presents different challenges for a player,” he explains. “Listening, language, instruments, techniques, sound, volume, interplay, etc. will be different in every setting.” MORE
January 1, 2013
Evan Parker & Agustí Fernández
Booklet notes for: The Voice is One
NotTwo Records MW 878-2
With improvised music dependent on in-the-moment factors and inspiration, it’s sobering to imagine that this masterful 2009 concert featuring British saxophonist Evan Parker and Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández was in fact a make-up date. Scheduled as part of the annual Festival de Jazz de Barcelona in November, the gig was actually rescheduled from the summer of 2008 when a sudden violent storm in the medieval Plaça Del Rei, necessitated cancellation after the sound check. “Everything was ready for the music: instruments, musicians, audience,” recalls Fernández, “but the weather had other ideas. There were rivers of water everywhere on the streets; we couldn’t walk.” MORE
June 10, 2012
El laberint de la memòria
Mbari Musica MBARI 04
Kris Davis
Aeriol Piano
Clean Feed CF 233 CD
Denman Maroney
Double Zero
Porter Records PRCD-4063
Simon Nabatov
Spinning Songs of Herbie Nichols
Leo Records CD LR 632
Something In The Air: Solo Piano Strategies
By Ken Waxman
Solo playing has always been the make-or-break yardstick for pianists of any genre. That’s solo playing not playing solo, an important distinction which differentiates between exhibiting showy breaks and having an overall musical plan for the mini-orchestra this is at his or her fingertips. The solo challenge is more pronounced for improvisers since even if they’re interpreting compositions, originality is the paramount concern. These challenges don’t prevent pianists from trying their hands at solo sessions. But it’s instructive to note that the memorable ones, such as the piano dates here by an American, a Canadian, a Catalan and a Russian, use different strategies to attain matchless quality. MORE
May 6, 2012
Maya Recordings
By Ken Waxman
As much as anything else, the birth of Maya Recordings, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, was born from impatience. Swiss violinist Maya Homburger, who operates the boutique label with her husband, British bassist/composer Barry Guy, recalls that since at that time another label was slow in putting out Arcus, a recording by Guy and bassist Barre Phillips, they decided to do so themselves. By 2012 29 Maya CDs have been released, improvised as well as baroque music.
The two were already veteran musician when Maya was created. Zürich-born Homburger, for instance, has worked with ensembles such as Trio Virtuoso and Camerata Kilkenny; while London-born Guy is part of many free jazz aggregations and is the founder/artistic director of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LCJO). Maya was envisioned as a different sort of imprint, Homburger recalls. “We wanted to create a label where music, cover art and writing were all related and on the highest level. We wanted to have control over the look as well as the sound.” MORE
January 20, 2012
Rhapsody's 2011 Jazz Critics' Poll
Individual Ballot
From Ken Waxman
1) Your name and primary affiliation(s) (no more than two, please)
2) Ken Waxman
Jazz Word (www.jazzword.com
3) Your choices for 2011's ten best new releases (albums released between Thanksgiving 2010 and Thanksgiving 2011, give or take), listed in descending order one-through-ten.
1. World Saxophone Quartet Yes We Can Jazzwerkstatt JW 098
2. Gerald Cleaver Uncle June Be It As I See It Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT-375
3. Hubbub Whobub Matchless MRCD 80 MORE
October 10, 2011
Météo Music Festival August 23 to August 27 2011
By Ken Waxman
Météo means weather in French, and one notable aspect of this year’s Météo Music Festival which takes place in Mulhouse, France, was the weather. It’s a testament to the high quality of the creative music there that audiences throughout the five days were without exception quiet and attentive despite temperatures in non air-conditioned concert spaces that hovered around the high 90sF. More dramatically, one afternoon a sudden freak thunderstorm created an unexpected crescendo to a hushed, spatial performance, by the Greek-Welsh Cranc trio of cellist Nikos Veliotis, harpist Rhodri Davies and violinist Angharad Davies, when winds violently blew ajar the immense wooden front door of Friche DMC, a former thread factory, causing glass to shatter and fall nosily. MORE
July 7, 2011
Kopros Lithos
Multikulti Project MP 1013
Augustí Fernández/Barry Guy/Ramón López
Morning Glory
Maya Records MCD 1001
Joe Morris/Agustí Fernández
Ambrosia
Riti CD11
Agustí Fernández & Joan Saura
Vents
psi 11.01
By Ken Waxman
Over the past 15 years Catalan pianist Augustí Fernández has become the most celebrated pianist – if not complete improviser – from his part of the world. In many ways he’s the successor to pianist Tete Montoliu (1933-1997). But while Montoliu was a bopper, Fernández doesn’t limit himself to one style, as this quatrtet of memorable discs makes evident. MORE
July 7, 2011
Ambrosia
Riti CD11
Agustí Fernández & Joan Saura
Vents
psi 11.01
Evans/Fernández/Gustafsson
Kopros Lithos
Multikulti Project MP 1013
Augustí Fernández/Barry Guy/Ramón López
Morning Glory
Maya Records MCD 1001
By Ken Waxman
Over the past 15 years Catalan pianist Augustí Fernández has become the most celebrated pianist – if not complete improviser – from his part of the world. In many ways he’s the successor to pianist Tete Montoliu (1933-1997). But while Montoliu was a bopper, Fernández doesn’t limit himself to one style, as this quatrtet of memorable discs makes evident. MORE
July 7, 2011
Augustí Fernández/Barry Guy/Ramón López
Morning Glory
Maya Records MCD 1001
Agustí Fernández & Joan Saura
Vents
psi 11.01
Evans/Fernández/Gustafsson
Kopros Lithos
Multikulti Project MP 1013
Joe Morris/Agustí Fernández
Ambrosia
Riti CD11
By Ken Waxman
Over the past 15 years Catalan pianist Augustí Fernández has become the most celebrated pianist – if not complete improviser – from his part of the world. In many ways he’s the successor to pianist Tete Montoliu (1933-1997). But while Montoliu was a bopper, Fernández doesn’t limit himself to one style, as this quatrtet of memorable discs makes evident. MORE
July 7, 2011
Vents
psi 11.01
Evans/Fernández/Gustafsson
Kopros Lithos
Multikulti Project MP 1013
Augustí Fernández/Barry Guy/Ramón López
Morning Glory
Maya Records MCD 1001
Joe Morris/Agustí Fernández
Ambrosia
Riti CD11
By Ken Waxman
Over the past 15 years Catalan pianist Augustí Fernández has become the most celebrated pianist – if not complete improviser – from his part of the world. In many ways he’s the successor to pianist Tete Montoliu (1933-1997). But while Montoliu was a bopper, Fernández doesn’t limit himself to one style, as this quatrtet of memorable discs makes evident. MORE
February 7, 2011
Augustí Fernández/Barry Guy/Ramón López
Morning Glory
Maya Records MCD 1001
Undivided
The Passion
Multikulti MPI 011
Ozone featuring Miklós Lukács
This is C'est la Vie
BMC Records BMCCD163
Nils Ostendorf/Philip Zoubek/Philippe Lauzier
Subsurface
Schraum Records 11
Something in the Air: Global Combos
By Ken Waxman
Globalization, mass communication and travel have actually created certain situations where the standardization of everything from hamburger patties to drum beats can be experienced no matter where in the world a person is situated. Increased mobility also, for instance, allows like-minded musicians in different locations to exchange thoughts and ideas. Because of this, the 21st Century has seen the instigation of literal global ensembles; musicians who work together regularly but live in different cities, countries or even continents. MORE
September 18, 2010
Some Other Place
Maya MCD 0902
Borah Bergman & Giorgio Dini
One More Time
SILTA Records SR801
Dating from a time when intimate night clubs feared the potentially bombastic rhythms of a drum kit, piano-bass duos – often with the additional of a guitar – became the last work in sophisticated jazz. Employed memorably by piano stylists as different as Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, Ahmad Jamal and Bill Evans, a tendency towards fussiness and minimalist panache is avoided if the strength of the pianist and bassist are equally matched. MORE
February 1, 2010
Somethingtobesaid
Weight of Wax WOW 02
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble
The Moment’s Energy
ECM 2066
Now that a large portion of improvised music is deliberately moving further away from its swing-blues roots and into an accommodation with New music, a few far-sighted so-called classical festivals have made a place for improvisers. Tellingly, both these captivating CDs featuring ensembles performing large-scale compositions by significant British saxophonists, were commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. More importantly, neither work is a jazz-classical cameo, but expansive enough to allow the composers’ ideas to be figuratively painted on a larger canvas, using an extended sonic palate. MORE
February 1, 2010
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble
The Moment’s Energy
ECM 2066
John Butcher Group
Somethingtobesaid
Weight of Wax WOW 02
Now that a large portion of improvised music is deliberately moving further away from its swing-blues roots and into an accommodation with New music, a few far-sighted so-called classical festivals have made a place for improvisers. Tellingly, both these captivating CDs featuring ensembles performing large-scale compositions by significant British saxophonists, were commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. More importantly, neither work is a jazz-classical cameo, but expansive enough to allow the composers’ ideas to be figuratively painted on a larger canvas, using an extended sonic palate. MORE
September 26, 2009
Augustí Fernández & Ingar Zach
Germinal
Plasticstrip pspcd708
Augustí Fernández
Un llamp que no s’acaba mai
psi 09.04
Barcelona-based Augustí Fernández is probably the most accomplished and readily identifiable Spanish pianist since Tete Montolieu – although both he and Montolieu would likely prefer to be known as Catalans.
Each of these high-class sessions emphasizes Fernández’ inventive versatility. As a quick rule-of-thumb, Un llamp que no s’acaba mai involves more of his on-the-keyboard skills and Germinal his explorations beneath the lid – bowing and slapping the string mechanism from soundboard to speaking length. MORE
September 26, 2009
Un llamp que no s’acaba mai
psi 09.04
Augustí Fernández & Ingar Zach
Germinal
Plasticstrip pspcd708
Barcelona-based Augustí Fernández is probably the most accomplished and readily identifiable Spanish pianist since Tete Montolieu – although both he and Montolieu would likely prefer to be known as Catalans.
Each of these high-class sessions emphasizes Fernández’ inventive versatility. As a quick rule-of-thumb, Un llamp que no s’acaba mai involves more of his on-the-keyboard skills and Germinal his explorations beneath the lid – bowing and slapping the string mechanism from soundboard to speaking length. MORE
March 28, 2009
Brugge, Belgium
October 2-October 5, 2008
Pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach’s German quartet rolled through a set of Thelonious Monk compositions; Sardinians, saxophonist Sandro Satta and keyboardist Antonello Salis liberally quoted Charles Mingus lines during their incendiary set; Berlin-based pianist Aki Takase and saxophonist Silke Eberhard recast Ornette Coleman’s tunes; and the French Trio de Clarinettes ended its set with harmonies reminiscent of Duke Ellington’s writing for his reed section.
All these sounds and many more were highlighted during the fourth edition of Jazz Brugge, which takes place every second year in this tourist-favored Belgium city, about 88 kilometres from Brussels. But sonic homage and musical interpolations were only notable when part of a broader interpretation of improvised music. Other players in this four-day festival came from Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Poland and Belgium. With strains of rock, New music and folklore informing the jazz presented at the festival’s three sonically impressive venues, music at the most notable concerts was completely unique or added to the tradition. The less-than-memorable sets were mired in past achievements or unworkable formulae MORE
August 15, 2008
Topos
Maya Records MCD 0701
Finding a role within an already existing musical partnership can be problematic. When the relationship has lasted most of three decades it’s that much riskier. Yet as the nine instant compositions on this CD demonstrate, Catalan pianist Augustí Fernández creates no fissure when he performs with the long-standing British trio of saxophonist Evan Parker, bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton.
It helps that the pianist, along with Lytton, is a member of extended Guy and Parker ensembles. Yet he’s such an accomplished stylist, whose collaborators range from Free Jazz bassist William Parker to New music flautist Jane Rigler, that his input enhances the tracks so that each part of the paradigm seems indivisible. MORE
August 11, 2006
Crossing the River
psi 06.02
Although there’s a numerical equivalence plus the crossover of several musicians, this octet shouldn’t be confused with the ensemble involved in tenor saxophonist Evan Parker’s electro-acoustic performances.
For a start there’s no hint of electronics here, even from violinist Philipp Wachsmann, who commonly uses wave forms as regularly as rosin. Plus while Wachsmann and Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández are on board, there’s no sign of the reedist’s long-time playing partners, bassist Barry Guy and drummer Paul Lytton. There’s no drummer at all in fact, while Wachsmann is part of a string choir of cellist Marcio Mattos, bassist John Edwards and guitarist John Russell – all of whom have played with Parker in other contexts. Most jolting is that the saxophonist is one of three horn players. John Rangecroft’s clarinet and Neil Metcalfe’s flute are the other wind instruments. Over the course of the more-than-77-minute CD, both get more space than Parker himself. MORE
February 27, 2006
Agustí Fernández & Mats Gustafsson
Critical Mass
psi
Agustí Fernández
Camallera
G3 Records/Sirulita
Agustí Fernández Quartet
Lonely Woman
Taller de Músics/Sirulita
By Ken Waxman
February 27, 2006
Without trying to propose a rigid maxim, it’s evident that much of the best improvised music has come from individuals whose ethnic group was or is removed from the mainstream.
Jazz, of course, was invented by oppressed African Americans, and since that time its most accomplished practitioners have usually been players from Black, Jewish, Italian or other minority backgrounds. The situation is a little more muddled in Europe, but interestingly enough the first universally acknowledged non-American jazzer was a Roma, guitarist Django Reinhardt. While setting up a hierarchy of victimology is silly, it’s instructive to consider, for example, that the two most acclaimed Spanish pianists are Catalan, not majority Spaniards. Tete Montoliu (1933-1997) was a masterful pop-bopper as his many sessions with American sidemen attest; while today, Barcelona-resident Agustí Fernández is similarly accepted in so-called avant-garde jazz circles. MORE
September 12, 2005
Oort – Entropy
Intakt
Maya Homburger & Barry Guy with Pierre Favre
Dakryon
Maya
By Ken Waxman
September 11, 2005
Established as one of FreeImprov’s most accomplished composer/bandleaders as well as a major improvising double bassist, Barry Guy continues to extend his musical range.
Having slimmed down his main compositional tool, the 17-piece London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO) to the more compact 10 piece, all-star Barry Guy New Orchestra (BGO), Oort – Entropy shows how the group reconstitutes specific sounds. The idea is to expand musical elements initially conceived for Guy’s trio with American pianist Marilyn Crispell and British drummer Paul Lytton. MORE
December 20, 2004
EVAN PARKER’S ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC ENSEMBLE
Memory/Vision
ECM 1852
Accelerating involvement in electro-acoustic creations has characterized one of British saxophonist Evan Parker’s many activities since the mid-1990s.
Parker, whose more than 35 year career has involved membership in groups ranging from massive big bands to two matchless improv trios, and who helped create the solo saxophone recital, has mastered a different genre with this CD.
In its parameters and evocation, this 70-minute plus continuous performance, commissioned by a British contemporary music festival, amplifies the reedist’s partnerships and conceptions. Performed by a nonet, two of the players -- bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton -- are Parker collaborators of decades standing and combine in one of his long constituted trios. Two others -- British/Ugandan violinist Philipp Wachsmann and Spanish pianist Augustí Fernández have worked with Parker in duo and larger group situations, both electronic an acoustic. Parker and Guy alone have recorded with Lawrence Casserley who mans the signal processing equipment here; while computer sound processor Joel Ryan has worked with Parker and French bassist Joëlle Léandre, another Parker associate. Italians Walter Prati on electronics and sound processing and Marco Vecchi on electronics have participated in the saxist’s other electro-acoustic sessions. MORE
June 28, 2004
JOHN BUTCHER/CHRISTOPHER IRMER/AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ
Clearings
ART.CappuccinoNet 008
Trans-European improv, CLEARINGS showcases a meeting of minds among musicians from three different countries with three distinct approaches to free music. Resulting in a substantial program of melding timbres, the CD confirms that only in a liberated musical situation like this could disparate styles meld.
As a matter of fact, if there was ever a complete misnomer, then it’s the title of the second track, “Bumpy Ride”. Here and elsewhere, the distinctive smeary trills of Britain’s John Butcher morph into wiggling irregular vibrations and join the speedy spiccato bowing of Germany’s Christoph Irmer and the dissonant, uneven note clusters of Spain’s Agustí Fernández sans bumps. MORE
March 3, 2003
JANE RIGLER & AUGUSTÌ FERNÁNDEZ
Mandorla
Dewdrop Recordings DDR 002
Defined as the union of opposites, Mandorla, the Italian word for “almond”, is used adroitly in this case. An ancient symbol of two circles overlapping one another to form an almond shape, it accurately describes this short -- 46 minute -- and exceptional CD of impressive, improvisations by what should be paradoxical partners.
Flutist Jane Rigler is a woman, an American and an academic with a PhD from the University of California, San Diego in Theoretical and Experimental Studies. With a repertoire that includes complex scores by Brian Ferneyhough, Vinko Globokar, John Cage and Bruno Maderna among others, she has also explored electronics, interactive computer music and improvisation with the likes of violinist Christoph Irmer, inside-pianist Andrea Neuman and percussionist Lê Quan Ninh. MORE
January 27, 2003
Trio Local +
Dewdrop Recordings DDR 001
The + in the title is intentional. It’s literally a plus sign, for this CD features three of Barcelona, Spain’s most accomplished improvisers collaborating with French, German and British improvisers.
A meeting of minds -- and fingers -- this fine CD shows that Iberian improvisers can undoubtedly hold their own with players with more advanced scenes. However, it should be stressed that Trio Local, which has been together since the mid-1990s is a Catalonian rather than a Spanish group. In the northeast and near the Pyrenees, Catalonia like Quebec in Canada, sees itself as distinct from the rest of Spain. Harsher and more abrasive than their southern counterparts, Catalonians also have a history of intellectualism, organization and progressive politics. It was this area that held out against Francisco Franco’s fascists during the Spanish Civil War and relations between Barcelona and the capital, Madrid, are always a bit distant. MORE
October 7, 2002
Barcelona
Hopscotch Records HOP 10
Excessive intellectualism is one of the most common properties ascribed to completely improvised music like this. Especially if, as on this duo CD, it involves experienced European virtuosi such as Spanish pianist Augustí Fernández and British guitarist and elder statesman of the genre, Derek Bailey.
But, while the collective biographies of the two encompass experience in contemporary classical music, dance band sounds, studio pop and most definitely jazz, a cozy duo session like this one could be linked to an earlier tradition. Performing together in a Barcelona studio, aren’t Fernández and Bailey expressing themselves in a so-called folkloric way? Bringing experience and mother wit into play as each deals with the other’s techniques and inspirations, they appear to be following early urban blues partnerships such as pianist Georgia Tom and guitarist Tampa Red or pianist Leroy Carr and guitarist Scrapper Blackwell. MORE
January 1, 2002
AUGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ/WILLIAM PARKER
2nd Set
Radical Records M PE 047
AUGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ/CHRISTOPH IRMER
Ebro Delta
Hybrid CD 18
Every day it seems, impressive improvising musicians are appearing in places most North Americans don’t associate with innovative sounds or even modern music. Appearing, of course is a relative term. In cases like this the “appearance” isn’t any more a description than our concept of Columbus “discovering” the New World, which had existed for many previous millennia. MORE