Twaalf ‘Textural Studies’ vinden we op dit album, simpelweg genummerd in Romeinse cijfers. Ze werden opgenomen in het Oude Klooster van Brecht, een prima locatie voor dit soort sessies. Webster gaat er direct in de eerste studie vol in, met sterk ontregelend en overstuurd spel, de longen uit zijn lijf blazend. Circulaire ademhaling is een bijzondere techniek, die niet alle saxofonisten goed beheersen, Webster hoort echter bij diegenen die daar prima raad mee weten, zo leert ons het tweede stuk. Aansluitend gebruikt Webster zijn altsax in het derde deel percussief, zijn knoppen als slagwerk inzettend. Bijzonder en opwindend zijn ook de golvende klankpatronen die Webster in het vijfde, zevende, negende en laatste deel creëert. In het zesde deel komt een ander aspect van de sax aan bod: het spelen met valse lucht, met een mooi subtiel resultaat. Kortom, dit is een zeer afwisselend album, waarin alle verschillende kwaliteiten van de altsax uitgebreid aan bod komen.” Nieuwe Noten

Album can purchased at our bandcamp store.

The Free Jazz Collective (USA) just reviewed KODIAN PLUS’ Disengage release, along with KODIAN TRIO’s BLACK BOX release on Raw Tonk Records. What a nice review so time to highlight this 2023 release once again. Available through our bandcamp. And read the full double review here.

 Lisle, Serries, and Webster brought in brass player Charlotte Keeffe and pianist Martina Verhoeven to form Kodian Plus, an expanded group recorded a blazing studio session (here’s hoping there are also live sets waiting to be released). Keeffe has been, for me, the discovery of the decade. A dynamic player with a clear vision, she matches Webster for sheer inventiveness, both of them playing with breath, valves and keys, and tones to make radical, dramatic sounds and melodic lines. Verhoeven, Serries’s spouse, has played with Serries and Webster in various free jazz lineups for over 10 years. Although she also plays bass and cello, on Disengage, Verhoeven only plays piano, although that phrasing greatly diminishes what she does with the instrument. Like many of her contemporaries, the piano is a whole instrument, not merely a set of keys at the end. And so, like Serries, Webster, and Keeffe, she almost takes the instrument apart sonically and reassembles it, component sound by component sound. After some languidly paced explorations, the quintet burns brightly, pulsating and boiling over with so much energy, it should leave any listener buzzing, eager to catch them as soon as possible.

On May 27th Fred Kellogg celebrated the 25th anniversary of his excellent FREE JAZZ WITH FRED radio show on KAOS Olympia 89.3FM. Fred has been a great supporter of our label in the past years and on this show he played some of his favorites from the label. Thank you, Fred !

Listen here : https://spinitron.com/KAOS/pl/19027781/Free-Jazz-with-Fred

ZWOSCH, ZWOSCH & ZWOSCH by Carlos ‘Zingaro’, Guilherme Rodrigues and José Oliveira was released last year on our label. Here’s a fine review by Ken Waxman on the Canadian JAZZ WORD.
Enjoy. The album is still available from our store here.

Dean and virtually the founder of contemporary improvised music in Portugal, violinist Carlos Zingaro, 75, has been forging an individual path since the late 1970s with international artists such as Joëlle Léandre and subsequent generations of local improvisers. Dedicated to Dadaist Kurt Schwitters, Zwosch, Zwosch & Zwosch links the violinist with younger improvisers cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and percussionist José Oliveira. 
With a smaller canvas and in trio form on Zwosch, Zwosch & Zwosch, Zingaro, Rodrigues and Olivera translate the onomatopoeia of the title into interactive ingenuity, as the percussionist’s distant rumbles shore up the strings’ affiliated thin squeaks and strained whines.
Before that and throughout the improvisation, the narrative frequently stops and starts with quiet interludes separating the more furious sequences. Those  emphasize stressed string squeezes and twangs as well as the percussionist’s metallic crashes, bell-tree-shakes, cymbal ratcheting, wooden smacks and resonating hisses. With delicacy and languor at a minimum, loudness and speed are still balanced by layered tone blending from stacked violin and cello arco buzzes stacked, preserving linear motion. Overall, since melodic interludes such as concave string trills and unexpected percussion gentling as well as more rugged expositions, the selection’s exploratory nature is also emphasized. Timbral contradictions are frequently resolved so the tracks are the aural equivalent of a profound multicolored canvas.  More affirmation, if any more are needed, of Zingaro’s continued creative imagination and the burgeoning skills of Iberian and Mediterranean improvisers is heard on this session.

HUGO COSTA / DIRK SERRIES / FRISO VAN WIJCK are playing a concert at the Klooster Oude Noorden in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), celebrating their live album ‘Live At Kapel Oude Klooster’ on Subcontinental Records. Don’t miss out.