Reviews that mention George Lewis
September 17, 2019
Voyage and Homecoming
RogueArt ROG 0086
By Ken Waxman
A mostly trio session featuring only two musicians, this CD is defined that way because Voyager, its more than 25-minute centrepiece, features close interaction among veteran improvisers, trombonist George Lewis and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and an acoustic Disklavier piano programmed by Lewis’ interactive Voyager software.
Reacting to the sounds generated by the horn players, the piano’s recital-ready introduction soon develops splintered and syncopated cadenzas and clusters which during the sequence-development accompanies first the trombonist’s expansive pumps and then the alto saxophonist’s bluesy extended line. Obviously never outpacing the humans, the piano accompaniment moves from dynamic glissandi to jolts and jumps, making common cause with Mitchell’s thin reed snarls and Lewis’ plunger blats. The polyphonic climax arrives as the three sound layers intersect at top volume, but with individual contributions very audible. MORE
July 11, 2018
George Lewis/Ensemble Dal Niente
Assemblage
New World Records 80792
Refusing to limit his musical identity to that of an academic or an improviser, from time to time trombonist George Lewis operates as an arm’s length composer in the traditional Eurocentric form. The four thought-provoking performances here are part of that trope. Rather than expressing his ideas as a performer as he frequently does elsewhere, Lewis passed his scores onto the Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente. Using various subsets of the group it’s the members’ interpretations that are outlined on disc as if the group was dealing with notated music from many other composers. MORE
December 21, 2017
George Lewis & Splitter Orchestra
Creative Construction Set™
Mikroton Recordings CD 50
By Ken Waxman
While it may appear like sifting alphabet soup for insight, American trombonist George Lewis’ three-part Creative Construction Set™ (CCS) for Berlin’s Splitter Orchestra (SO) is an organic recasting of ideas first advanced by the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (ACCM)’s sextet the Creative Construction Company (CCC). Abbreviations aside, the essence of this performance is how this mixture of improvisation and composition can be expressed flexibly by two dozen players. MORE
February 18, 2017
Jazz Critics Poll Ballot
2016
•Your name and primary affiliation(s)
Ken Waxman: Jazzword.com The New York City Jazz Record; Whole Note
•Your choices for this year’s 10 best New Releases listed in descending order
1. Alexander Hawkins Trio Alexander Hawkins Music AH 1001
2. Anna Webber’s Simple Trio Binary Skirl Records 033
3. Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus The Distance ECM 2484
4. Artifacts Reed-Reid-Mitchell 482 Music 482-1093
5. Umlaut Big Band Euro Swing Vol. 2 Umlaut UMFR-CD18 MORE
January 1, 2016
Jazz Critics Poll Ballot
2015
Ken Waxman (The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Word)
NEW RELEASES
- Roscoe Mitchell, Celebrating Fred Anderson (Nessa)
- Daniel Carter-William Parker-Federico Ughi, Navajo Sunrise (Rudi)
- François Carrier-Michel Lambert-Rafal Mazur, Unknowable (Not Two)
- Anna Webber, Refraction (Pirouet)
- Tim Berne, You've Been Watching Me (ECM)
- Evan Parker, Seven (Victo)
- Samuel Blaser, Spring Rain (Whirlwind)
- Akira Sakata-Giovanni Di Domenico-John Edwards-Steve Noble, Live at Cafe Oto (Clamshell)
- James Falzone & the Renga Ensemble, The Room Is (Allos Documents)
- George Freeman & Chico Freeman, All in the Family (Southport)
June 11, 2015
Evan Parker ElectroAcoustic Septet
Seven
Victo 127
Parker/Dunmall/Bianco
Extremes
Red Toucan RT 9349
Harris Eisenstadt
Golden State II
Songlines SGL 1610-2
Anthony Braxton
Trio and Duet
Sackville (Delmark) SK3007
EarNear
EarNear
TourdeBras TDB90012 CD
Something In The Air: Canadian Exposure for Out-of-the-Country Out-of-the-Ordinary Improvisers
By Ken Waxman
Just as international improvisers sometimes find a more welcoming atmosphere for their sound experiments in Canada than at home, so too have Canadian record labels become a vehicle to release notable free music sessions. Attesting to this openness, two of the most recent discs by British saxophone master Evan Parker are on Canadian imprints. But each arrived by a different route. One of the triumphs of 2014’s Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Quebec, this performance of Seven by Parker’s ElectroAcoustic Septet (Victo 127) are available on Victo, FIMAV’s affiliated imprint. Consisting of one massive and one shorter instant composition, Seven literally delineates the electro-acoustic divide. Trumpeter Peter Evans, reedist Ned Rothenberg, cellist Okkyung Lee and Parker make up the acoustic side, while varied laptop processes are operated by Ikue Mori and Sam Pluta, with George Lewis switching between laptop and trombone, with his huffing brass tone making a particular impression during a contrapuntal faced-off with Parker’s soprano saxophone during Seven-2. At nearly 46 minutes, “Seven-1” is the defining work, attaining several musical crests during its ghostly, meandering near time-suspension, Allowing for full expression of instrumental virtuosity, dynamic flutters, flanges and processes from the laptoppists accompany, comment upon or challenge the acoustic instruments. Alternately wave forms loops and echoes cause the instrumentalists to forge their reposes. Plenty of sonic surprises arise during the sequences. Undefined processed-sounding bee-buzzing motifs for example are revealed as mouth and lip modulations from Evans’ piccolo trumpet or aviary trills from Rothenberg’s clarinet. In contrast the electronics’ crackles and static are often boosted into mellower affiliations that sound purely acoustic. Eventually both aspects meld into a climax of bubbly consistency with any background-foreground, electro or acoustic displays satisfactorily melded. More percussive “Seven-2” has a climax involving fragmented electronics pulsating steadily as first Evans, then Rothenberg and finally Parker spill out timbres that confirm formalism as much as freedom. MORE
February 1, 2015
Derek Bailey/Joëlle Léandre/George Lewis/Evan Parker
Dunois 1982
Fou Records FR-CD 06
Frank Lowe Quartet
Out Loud
Triple Point Records TPR 209
Don Pullen
Richard’s Tune
Delmark/Sackville CD2-3008
Steve Lacy
Cycles (1976-80)
Emanem 5205
Ted Daniel’s Energy Module
Energy Module
NoBusiness Records NBCD 72/73
Something In The Air: Revolutionary Records Redux
By Ken Waxman
About 40 years on, so-called Free Jazz and Free Music from the late sixties, seventies and early eighties, doesn’t sound so revolutionary any more. The idea of improvising without chord structures or fixed rhythm has gradually seeped into most players’ consciousness, with the genre(s) now accepted as particular methods for improvisation along with Bop, Dixieland and Fusion. Historical perspective also means that many sessions originally recorded during that period are now being released. Some are reissues, usually with additional music added; others are newly unearthed tapes being issued for the first time. The best discs offer up formerly experimental sounds whose outstanding musicianship is more of a lure than nostalgia. MORE
November 3, 2013
Live at A Space 1975
Sackville-Demark SK 2080
Anthony Braxton
Echo Echo Mirror House
Victo cd 125
François Houle/Håvard Wiik
Aves
Songlines SGL 1601-2
Evan Tighe
Threadcount
ETC 0001
Something In The Air: Recorded in Canada, Appreciated World-Wide
By Ken Waxman
Without question one of jazz’s most representative records is of a 1954 concert with Bop masters Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach in their only performance together. That the session was recorded in Toronto’s Massey Hall makes it distinctive as well as replaceable. But Jazz at Massey Hall isn’t the only instance of jazz history being made north of the border. Precisely because of gig opportunities for committed international improvisers discs recorded at Canadian gigs or festivals are an important part of the music’s fabric. MORE
January 6, 2013
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra Festival 5
By Ken Waxman
Brawny and gritty, Glasgow, Scotland`s largest city has been a shipbuilding, trading and manufacturing powerhouse since the Industrial Revolution. At the same time the grey northern port has had a long-established aesthetic side, characterized by the often imitated Arts and Crafts movement designs and structures of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928).
This blend of power and passion was reflected November 29 to December 1 as the city’s 24-member Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO) celebrated its 10th anniversary and 5th annual festival with performances at the city’s downtown Centre for Contemporary Art by the whole band and various subsets; other Scottish improvisers; and guests including inventive saxophonist Evan Parker, irrepressible vocalist Maggie Nicols and polymath George Lewis utilizing trombone and computer. MORE
July 12, 2011
The Solo Trombone Record
Sackville SKCD2-3012
Julius Hemphill
Roi Boyé & the Gotham Mintrels
Sackville SKCD2-3014/15
Oliver Lake/Julius Hemphill
Buster Bee
Sackville SKCD2-3016
Anthony Davis
Of Blues and Dreams
Sackville SKCD2-3020
Karl Berger & Dave Holland
All Kinds of Time
Sackville SKCD2-3010
Roscoe Mitchell
Quartet
Sackville SKCD2-3009)
Barry Altschul Trio
MORE
July 12, 2011
Quartet
Sackville SKCD2-3009)
Julius Hemphill
Roi Boyé & the Gotham Mintrels
Sackville SKCD2-3014/15
Oliver Lake/Julius Hemphill
Buster Bee
Sackville SKCD2-3016
George Lewis
The Solo Trombone Record
Sackville SKCD2-3012
Anthony Davis
Of Blues and Dreams
Sackville SKCD2-3020
Karl Berger & Dave Holland
All Kinds of Time
Sackville SKCD2-3010
Barry Altschul Trio
MORE
May 16, 2011
Bert Turetzky/George Lewis/Vinny Golia
Triangulation II
Kadima #30
By Ken Waxman
As unruffled as any musical conversation among veteran players, the free improvisations which make up Triangulation II evolve with certainty and sophistication. Nonetheless with each player an old hand at pushing instrumental timbres to their limits, the results are anything but comfy. Multi-reedman Vinny Golia, trombonist George Lewis and bassist Bert Turetzky are so experienced at sonically depicting the seemingly impossible that they can do so at medium tempos and moderate volume. Plus these unorthodox techniques don’t stop them from creating harmonious musical relationships. MORE
March 14, 2011
Tell No Lies Claim No Easy Victories
Edited by Phillipp Schmickl
Impro 2000
ECM 40th Anniversary Catalogue
Edited by Kenny Inaoka
Tokyo Kirarasha
As globalization intensifies, American-birthed popular music forms – most especially Jazz and Improvised Music – have evolved far beyond their initial audiences, confirming one of the hoariest of clichés, that music is a universal language. Creative music of many stripes has for many years been often treated more seriously in Europe and Asia than in North America. Consequently to be truly informed about the breadth of musical sounds it helps to understand other languages besides English. That’s the challenge related to the valuable books here. Neither is published primarily in English, but both can serve as resources for followers of Jazz and Improvised Music, no matter their native tongues. MORE
September 3, 2010
Sour Mash
Innova 228
Chris Brown/Pauline Oliveros
Music in the Air
Deep Listening DL 43-2010
John Zorn/George Lewis/Bill Frisell
More News For Lulu
hatOLOGY 655
Marilyn Crispell/ David Rothenberg
One Dark Night I Left My Silent House
ECM 2089
Guelph Jazz Festival Highlights
Extended Play
By Ken Waxman
Characteristically adventurous, the 17th annual Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF) September 8 to 12 presents respected sound explorers in novel musical situations. MORE
September 3, 2010
John Zorn/George Lewis/Bill Frisell
More News For Lulu
hatOLOGY 655
Marilyn Crispell David Rothenberg
One Dark Night I Left My Silent House
ECM 2089
Chris Brown/Pauline Oliveros
Music in the Air
Deep Listening DL 43-2010
Marina Rosenfeld/George Lewis
Sour Mash
Innova 228
Guelph Jazz Festival Highlights
Extended Play
By Ken Waxman
Characteristically adventurous, the 17th annual Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF) September 8 to 12 presents respected sound explorers in novel musical situations. MORE
September 4, 2009
Joëlle Léandre & Quentin SirJacq
Out of Nowhere
Ambiance Magnétique AM 184
Joëlle Léandre & William Parker
Live at Dunois
Leo CD LR 535
Joëlle Léandre-George Lewis
Transatlantic Visions
RogueArt ROG-0020
Joëlle Léandre
Live in Israel
Kadima KCR 17
Joëlle Léandre & Quentin SirJacq
Out of Nowhere
Ambiance MagnétiqueAM184
Extended Play: Joëlle Léandre
By Ken Waxman
A masterful and distinctive soloist, French bassist Joëlle Léandre is versatile in any musical situation. These impressive CDs showcase her improvisational skills, while elsewhere the conservatory-trained Parisian is as comfortable with notated music, often performing studies written for her by composers such as John Cage and Giancinto Scelsi. MORE
September 4, 2009
Joëlle Léandre & William Parker
Live at Dunois
Leo CD LR 535
Joëlle Léandre-George Lewis
Transatlantic Visions
RogueArt ROG-0020
Joëlle Léandre
Live in Israel
Kadima KCR 17
Joëlle Léandre & Quentin SirJacq
Out of Nowhere
Ambiance MagnétiqueAM184
Extended Play: Joëlle Léandre
By Ken Waxman
A masterful and distinctive soloist, French bassist Joëlle Léandre is versatile in any musical situation. These impressive CDs showcase her improvisational skills, while elsewhere the conservatory-trained Parisian is as comfortable with notated music, often performing studies written for her by composers such as John Cage and Giancinto Scelsi. MORE
September 4, 2009
Transatlantic Visions
RogueArt ROG-0020
Joëlle Léandre
Live in Israel
Kadima KCR 17
Joëlle Léandre & Quentin SirJacq
Out of Nowhere
Ambiance MagnétiqueAM184
Joëlle Léandre & William Parker
Live at Dunois
Leo CD LR 535
Extended Play: Joëlle Léandre
By Ken Waxman
A masterful and distinctive soloist, French bassist Joëlle Léandre is versatile in any musical situation. These impressive CDs showcase her improvisational skills, while elsewhere the conservatory-trained Parisian is as comfortable with notated music, often performing studies written for her by composers such as John Cage and Giancinto Scelsi. MORE
September 4, 2009
Live in Israel
Kadima KCR 17
Joëlle Léandre & William Parker
Live at Dunois
Leo CD LR 535
Joëlle Léandre-George Lewis
Transatlantic Visions
RogueArt ROG-0020
Joëlle Léandre & Quentin SirJacq
Out of Nowhere
Ambiance MagnétiqueAM184
Extended Play: Joëlle Léandre
By Ken Waxman
A masterful and distinctive soloist, French bassist Joëlle Léandre is versatile in any musical situation. These impressive CDs showcase her improvisational skills, while elsewhere the conservatory-trained Parisian is as comfortable with notated music, often performing studies written for her by composers such as John Cage and Giancinto Scelsi. MORE
July 3, 2009
MEV 40
New World Records 80675-2
Consisting of a nucleus of academically trained composers who promoted free improvisation and group interaction, Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) was the sort of musical aggregation that could only have been born in the 1960s.
Yet as this absorbing four-CD set of MEV performances – from its beginning in 1967, to its 40th anniversary – proves, the group’s triumphs are musically sophisticated as well as sociologically notable. Willingly subsuming the vaulted tradition of a single composer into group interaction, MEV’s most notable pieces added the smarts of jazz improvisers and the sonic versatility of increasingly complex electronic instruments to the compositional stew. Furthermore, the group has survived all these years because it never allowed electronics to submerge its initial humanistic and populist approach. MORE
March 23, 2009
For MusicWorks Issue #103
BY KEN WAXMAN
Mammoth beer-drinking establishments and meticulously maintained older structures of all sorts are the images that resonate most strongly about Munich, Germany’s third-largest city. All year Munich’s outdoor beer gardens – one of which holds 8,000 [!] people – are packed with folks enjoying the traditional one-litre (die mass) glass of beer and chowing down on regional specialties such as Weißwürste (white sausages), Leberkäs (baked sausage loaf), and sweetish chewy pretzels, while listening to brass bands. Annually the 16-day Oktoberfest adds about 17 million visitors to the Bavarian capital’s nearly 1.5 inhabitants. MORE
November 25, 2008
Alexander Von Schlippenbach-Globe Unity Orchestra
Globe Unity - 40 Years
Intakt CD 133
Schlippenbach Trio
Gold Is Where You Find It
Intakt CD 143
More than 70 years old, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach is one more proof of Steve Lacy’s adage that “free jazz keeps you young”. A professional musician since 1962, Berlin-based Schlippenbach has maintained his level of creativity in various contexts, most prominently in the trans-European Globe Unity Orchestra (GUO) and his trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens. MORE
October 8, 2008
Guelph Jazz Festival Musicians On Their Own
Extended Play
Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid
Tarfala
Maya MCD0801
Junk Box
Cloudy Then Sunny
Libra Records 203-019
John Zorn
News For Lulu
hatOLOGY 650
Matana Roberts
The Chicago Project
Central Control CC1006PR
Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet
Tabligh
Cuneiform Rune 270
AMMÜ Quartet
AMMÜ Quartet
MORE
July 9, 2008
Sucker Punch Requiem
Henceforth Records 104
Paul Bley
12+6 In A Row
hatOLOGY 649
Radio I-Ching
The Fire Keeps Burning
Resonant Music 004
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet
One Dance Alone
Songlines SGL SA1571-2
Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff
Zemlya
Leo Records CD LR 507
Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds
Extended Play
By Ken Waxman
Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators. MORE
July 9, 2008
12+6 In A Row
hatOLOGY 649
Lisle Ellis
Sucker Punch Requiem
Henceforth Records 104
Radio I-Ching
The Fire Keeps Burning
Resonant Music 004
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet
One Dance Alone
Songlines SGL SA1571-2
Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff
Zemlya
Leo Records CD LR 507
Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds
Extended Play
By Ken Waxman
Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators. MORE
July 9, 2008
Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff
Zemlya
Leo Records CD LR 507
Paul Bley
12+6 In A Row
hatOLOGY 649
Lisle Ellis
Sucker Punch Requiem
Henceforth Records 104
Radio I-Ching
The Fire Keeps Burning
Resonant Music 004
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet
One Dance Alone
Songlines SGL SA1571-2
Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds
Extended Play
By Ken Waxman
Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators. MORE
July 9, 2008
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet
One Dance Alone
Songlines SGL SA1571-2
Paul Bley
12+6 In A Row
hatOLOGY 649
Lisle Ellis
Sucker Punch Requiem
Henceforth Records 104
Radio I-Ching
The Fire Keeps Burning
Resonant Music 004
Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff
Zemlya
Leo Records CD LR 507
Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds
Extended Play
By Ken Waxman
Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators. MORE
July 9, 2008
The Fire Keeps Burning
Resonant Music 004
Paul Bley
12+6 In A Row
hatOLOGY 649
Lisle Ellis
Sucker Punch Requiem
Henceforth Records 104
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet
One Dance Alone
Songlines SGL SA1571-2
Mark O'Leary/Eyvind Kang/Dylan van der Schyff
Zemlya
Leo Records CD LR 507
Expatriate – and Homebody – Sounds
Extended Play
By Ken Waxman
Geographic proximity is responsible for the migration of gifted Canadian artists to the United States. Plus Canadian improvisers down south quickly find eager collaborators. MORE
July 2, 2008
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
By George E. Lewis
University of Chicago Press
Home from his studies at Yale University in 1971, trombonist George Lewis was walking to his parents’ home on Chicago’s South Side when he heard unusual sounds coming from a nearby brick building. Peering inside he saw a group practicing what he calls “fascinating” music. Asking if he could attend future rehearsals, Lewis was grudgingly welcomed into what he soon found out was the disciplined but inventive milieu of the Association of the Advancement Musicians (AACM). MORE
January 19, 2004
The Beat Suite
Sunnyside/Enja SSC 3012
DEEP LISTENING BAND/JOE MCPHEE QUARTET
Unquenchable Fire
Deep Listening DL 19-2003
Blending music and texts -- either poetry or prose -- has never been a particularly easy task, especially when the music involved is improvised. Yet for the past 50 years at least, variations of the concept have been tried with various degrees of success.
Among his other sonic inquiries, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy has turned his hand to text-based material for many years; he has been able to utilize the voice of his partner Irene Aebi as his speaker/vocalist since the late 1960s. THE BEAT SUITE is his most recent grapple with the concept -- and one that is particularly apt. The words, which intermingle with the music here, were written by 10 of the most accomplished Beat versifiers. All had or have an affinity for improvised music and most were known personally by either Lacy or Abei. MORE
November 4, 2002
Blackwater Bridge
Drimala DR 02-347-02
JASON ROBINSON
Tandem
Accretions ALP 025CD
Making a list of dedicated harpists who excel in -- or even play -- free form music doesn’t take too long. In improvised music, for instance, there’s Briton Rhodri Davies and American Zeena Parkins and … Davies and Parkins. In jazz there was Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane and, … unsurprisingly, Ashby and Coltrane.
However BLACKWATER BRIDGE, an exacting duo disc featuring alto saxophonist Gary Hassay, definitely adds harpist Anne LeBaron to that stellar company. Considering the unadorned musical circumstances here, her work may be even more noteworthy. After all, solo saxophone doesn’t provide much back up. MORE
January 24, 2002
News from the 70s
Felmay/Newtone FY 7005
With his MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and his tenured position at Wesleyan University now part of his storied past, it would seem that Anthony Braxton has attained the respect he deserves as an academic and a serious American composer. However, a document like this CD -- or “text” as the academics would term it -- serves as a reminder of how he achieved what he did.
Organized by Italian jazz writer Francesco Martinelli and consisting of almost 75 minutes of tapes from Braxton’s private tape stash, the newest track dates from 1976 and the oldest from 1971. Braxton’s improvising and band leading is emphasized as much as his composing here, and hearing him in contexts ranging from solo to quartet you quickly pick up on the skill, technique and intensity that drew people to him in the first place. Hitherto-unknown compositions and new versions of older compositions are exposed, as are unique or under-recorded partnerships. MORE