Reviews, concert reports and
photographs of an extensive range of
improvised and jazz-related music

A single nearly hour-long performance, Hohai Bushi is a somewhat contrived attempt to fuse Japanese and Norwegian musical currents through the medium of improvised Jazz. Composed by drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and based on a traditional song from Aomori, the piece is interpreted by the drummer’s 14-strong large unit, with Akira Sakata, the veteran Japanese Free Jazz player featured on alto saxophone, Bb-clarinet and voice. Far removed from the ecstatic, almost limitless Free Jazz intensity Sakata exhibits… Read More