Reviews that mention Gianni Mimmo
September 6, 2020
The Whole Thing
Amirani Records AMNR 063
Maksimowicz/Golovano
Beyond
No Label No #
Piano-saxophone duets which mark the final chapter in one relationship and the continuing strengthening of the other are what separate these otherwise admirable discs. Unfortunately The Whole Thing is the last Reciprocal Uncles disc, since Italian pianist Gianni Lenoci died at 56 in September 2019, four months after recording this fluid improvisation with long-time partner soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo. On the other hand Beyond is yet another step beyond synergy by two of Lithuania’s most prominent improviser, pianist Dmitrij Golovanov and soprano saxophonist Jan Maksimowicz, who have been collaborating for 15 years. MORE
June 26, 2020
Live in Munich 2019
Fundacja Słucha FSR 01/2020
Gianni Mimmo/Alison Blunt
Busy Butterflies
Amirani Records AMNR 062
Object lessons in micro and macro modifications from the duo of British-based violinist Alison Blunt and Italian soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo has the two improvising alone and as part of a mixed sextet. Each glimpse is representative.
Recorded in concert Live in Munich 2019 finds the established duo embedded within Sestetto Internationale, alongside Finns, soprano/sopranino saxophonist Harri Sjöström and accordionist Veli Kujala plus Germans, pianist Achim Kaufmann and Ignaz Schick playing turntables and sampler, all of whom have extensive experience in Free Jazz and the Free Music. Curiously each CD begins with an extended track, which is also the longest on the disc. MORE
June 26, 2020
Busy Butterflies
Amirani Records AMNR 062
Sestetto Internationale
Live in Munich 2019
Fundacja Słucha FSR 01/2020
Object lessons in micro and macro modifications from the duo of British-based violinist Alison Blunt and Italian soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo has the two improvising alone and as part of a mixed sextet. Each glimpse is representative.
Recorded in concert Live in Munich 2019 finds the established duo embedded within Sestetto Internationale, alongside Finns, soprano/sopranino saxophonist Harri Sjöström and accordionist Veli Kujala plus Germans, pianist Achim Kaufmann and Ignaz Schick playing turntables and sampler, all of whom have extensive experience in Free Jazz and the Free Music. Curiously each CD begins with an extended track, which is also the longest on the disc. MORE
April 2, 2019
Explicit
Amirani AMRN 057/Nine Winds Records NWCD 0346
Xavier Charles/Jacques Di Donato
Ilex
Protagoniste PROTA 1801
NovoTono
Overlays
Parma Frontiere PF-CD 004
Unaccompanied reed duos aren’t the easiest configurations in which to be involved. That’s because both musicians have to not only create enough distinctive timbres to assert his or her particular vision(s), but also have the scope to suggest formulae which complement or challenge the other player’s ideas as the program moves forward. Using a collection of saxophones and clarinets the duos here provide their distinctive takes on the reed duo challenge. One CD unites dynamic improvisers from two different countries for nine interpretations; one features two French clarinetists, who started as teacher and pupil, incisively interpreting 14 selections; while the 12 creations on the third CD should be the closest knit since the player are brothers. MORE
November 1, 2017
Aural Vetrtigo
Amirani Records AMRN 049
What’s done for commercial consideration in so-called Euro-pudding films, come about by happenstance from international minded European improvisers’ CDs. And the different in intent is one reason the latter is more satisfying than the former. Searching for funds from nationalist governments, film producers try to cast as many actors and technicians as they can from various countries in order to secure subsidies from the widest possible sources. Such a film is usually labeled a Euro-pudding. Since money for improvisers is much less, edging up from non-existent, musical coordinates are made for artistic reasons. MORE
July 6, 2016
Flawless Dust
Long Song Records LSRCD 138/2016
By Ken Waxman
Best known as a teacher and author of guitar instruction manuals, a busman’s holiday for guitarist Garrison Fewell, who died at 61, a year ago this month, involved recording challenging sessions with players ranging from George Cables to John Tchicai. Like an activist such as W.E.B. Du Bois. who became progressively more radical as he aged, Fewell seemed headed on the same path. Flawless Dust, his first posthumously released CD, consists of nine knotty and reductionist tracks, improvised by the guitarist and Italian soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo, whose concepts widen the hairline fissure where jazz and experimental music meet. MORE
May 17, 2016
Scenes From A Trialogue
Amirani Records AMRN 045
Made to Break
Before the Code
Trost TR 141
KNU!
My Horse Doesn’t Give a Shit
Unit Records UTR 46089
Jean-Marc Foussat & Jean-Luc Petit
…Doù Vient La Lumière!
Fou Records FR-CD 13
Uliben Duo
Shared Memory
Creative Sources CS 327 CD
Something In The Air: Matching Electronic and Acoustic Improvisation
By Ken Waxman
At least since 1948, when French theorist Pierre Schaeffer coined the term Musique Concrète as serious composers and performers began experimenting with technology to create music the possibilities available from the use of electronics became accepted. Today electronically advanced sounds are as common and expected as outlandish tonsorial choices for pop stars. Electronic processing has also been adapted to create more variables in improvised music. Although some purists renounce non-electronic sources completely, in the main those players that create a nourishing musical meal by pairing electronic and acoustic impulses appear to end up with the most interesting programs. MORE
January 11, 2015
Lasting Ephemerals
Amirani Records AMRN #037-LP1
Barrel
Live at Artacts 12
Idyllic Noise IDNO 009
Playing violin in a Free Music context calls for a certain mindset and set of novel perceptions that are unlike those in so-called classical music or Jazz. While rejecting the enforced prettiness of much popular notated music, a thematic hook has to be there, especially when the fiddler is involved in a non-solo situation. Plus, while eschewing swing for its own sake, the improvisations still have to include motion enough to propel the sounds forward to a coherent stopping point. MORE
August 18, 2013
Turbulent Flow
Amirani Records AMRN 032/Teriyaki Records TRK 3
Udo Schindler/Uli Winter/Fredi Pröll
Schi.Va
Pilgrims of Sound No #
Harmonizing a reed instrument with a cello can be a dicey proposition since a similarity in timbres can often lead to sonic muddiness, especially when few other instruments are involved. Each of these ensembles has set out to overcome the problem in a unique fashion.
Take Schi.Va for instance. Veteran Munich-based reedist Udo Schindler, who also specializes in solo playing, helps expose a variety of textures by not only inviting Ulrichsberg, Austria-based cellist Uli Winter to participate in this four part-suite, but also welcomes contributions from percussionist Fredi Pröll, another Ulrichsberger. The drummer and cellist have been improvising together for many years two or three times a weeks. As the two halves of a single heartbeat, Schindler thus gets two improvisers who think as one, producing a sympathetic interface with which he can work. Schindler isn’t complacent however. He ups the improvisational ante by adding excursions on cornet to the mix, along with his prowess on his more familiar soprano saxophone and different clarinets. MORE
October 17, 2012
10,000 Leaves
NotTwo MW 880-2
Veryan Weston/Ingrid Laubrock/Hannah Marshall
Haste
Emanem 5025
Taking the chamber music instrumentation of piano, cello and woodwind as a base, but creating instant compositions with extended instrumental techniques in performance, these CDs literally delineate European Free Music. Nonetheless each is as different from the other as Austria is from England, proving that innovation arises in several forms. Despite its title, the three tracks on Haste, recorded at a festival in Barcelona, are dependent on understated patterning, unexpected vibrations and unfold at a mostly arthropodic pace – creations that are unfettered without being unruly. On the other hand, the aptly named Wild Chamber Trio invests 10,000 Leaves with many strident, staccato and strained sequences, creating an end product which studded with sharp angles and festering with sonic points. MORE
April 21, 2012
Again: Live in Bruxelles
Amirani AMRN 029/Teriyaki TRK 02
Barrel
Gratuitous Abuse
Emanem 5020
United the by presence of British cellist Hannah Marshall, the Shoreditch Trio and Barrel provide two high-quality modes of investigating the expanses of free improvisation. Both ensembles have more in common than personnel and circumstances would initially indicate. That’s because, despite outward appearances, Barrel is no more a conventional string ensemble any more than Shoreditch is a common drum-less Jazz combo. MORE
December 20, 2011
Live at Bauchhund Berlin 2010
Amirani Records AMRN 026
Lol Coxhill/Alex Ward
Old Sights, New Sounds
Incus CD 61
Alípio C. Neto/Thelmo Cristovam
Triatoma Infestations
Creative Sources CS 188 CD
Unusual to contemplate and difficult to execute without straining, duos involving improvisers playing high-pitched reed instruments unaccompanied are as unique as they are infrequent. Yet the skills, talents and techniques which characterize the three duos here convincingly demonstrate that first-rate playing can arise in this potentially limiting format. MORE
June 16, 2010
No Room for Doubt
Amirani Records AMRN 020
Speak Easy
Back Chats
Creative Sources CS 149 CD
Although it’s the least expensive and most portable instrument, the human voice is usually the one most resistant to tessitura experimentation and the innovation of non-standard forms. Perhaps it’s because in most cultures strong, lyrical expression is celebrated and, with the possible exceptions of background harmonizing and so-called scat singing, improvising vocally but without forming words is regarded as eccentric. MORE
April 14, 2010
Forgiving July
Amirani Records AMRN 016
Borah Bergman/Stefano Pastor
Live at Tortona
Mutable MM-17534-2
Within the wider vistas of improvised music, the idea of seeing a violin – or a viola – on the stand doesn’t upset anyone. The challenge for the fiddler however, is to bring, along with the instrument, .something unexpected to the musical meeting.
Genovese violinist Stefano Pastor, who strings his fiddle with extremely rigid electric guitar strings, has used it in rock, pop and symphonic situations – and more advantageously when improvising with advanced jazzers such as trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini, baritone saxophonist George Haslam or pianist Connie Crothers MORE
April 14, 2010
Live at Tortona
Mutable MM-17534-2
Contini/Mimmo/Pastor
Forgiving July
Amirani Records AMRN 016
Within the wider vistas of improvised music, the idea of seeing a violin – or a viola – on the stand doesn’t upset anyone. The challenge for the fiddler however, is to bring, along with the instrument, .something unexpected to the musical meeting.
Genovese violinist Stefano Pastor, who strings his fiddle with extremely rigid electric guitar strings, has used it in rock, pop and symphonic situations – and more advantageously when improvising with advanced jazzers such as trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini, baritone saxophonist George Haslam or pianist Connie Crothers MORE
June 22, 2008
Gregorianum
Ozmotic Records 001
Mimmo/Serrapiglio/Cusa
A Watched Pot (Never Boils)
Amirani Records AMR006
Mrafi
La Terra di Giubba
Rai Trade RTPJ 003
With Italy’s history as a unified entity only a little more than a century old, following many millennia of absorbing influences form other countries, it’s not surprising that Italian improvising musicians are unafraid to adopt a variety of musical stimuli for their own ends. These notable recent sessions provide perfect examples of this. MORE
June 22, 2008
La Terra di Giubba
Rai Trade RTPJ 003
Cantuarium
Gregorianum
Ozmotic Records 001
Mimmo/Serrapiglio/Cusa
A Watched Pot (Never Boils)
Amirani Records AMR006
With Italy’s history as a unified entity only a little more than a century old, following many millennia of absorbing influences form other countries, it’s not surprising that Italian improvising musicians are unafraid to adopt a variety of musical stimuli for their own ends. These notable recent sessions provide perfect examples of this. MORE
June 22, 2008
A Watched Pot (Never Boils)
Amirani Records AMR006
Cantuarium
Gregorianum
Ozmotic Records 001
Mrafi
La Terra di Giubba
Rai Trade RTPJ 003
With Italy’s history as a unified entity only a little more than a century old, following many millennia of absorbing influences form other countries, it’s not surprising that Italian improvising musicians are unafraid to adopt a variety of musical stimuli for their own ends. These notable recent sessions provide perfect examples of this. MORE