Bill Shoemaker
Bill’s Contributions
April 2003 Countercurrents
Chicago 2002
Paul Rutherford
Though it is a single CD, British trombonist Paul Rutherford's Chicago 2002 (Emanem) is something of a two-fer. Recorded at the Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music, the album is divided between Rutherford's trailblazing solo music and a septet...
April 2003 Countercurrents
USA Tour/April 2001/Live
Carlo Actis Dato
One of Italian Instabile Orchestra's merriest pranksters, saxophonist/clarinetist Carlo Actis Dato relies largely on Italian folk music, whether he is working in one of his own groups or in ad-hoc settings like those documented on USA Tour/April 2001/Live...
April 2003 Countercurrents
Floating 1 2 3
Michael Moore/Peggy Lee/Dylan van der Schyff
Michael Moore is so thoroughly identified with New Dutch Swing that a periodic reminder that he is an American is in order. Though the California-born clarinetist/saxophonist is based in Amsterdam, he has also retained a Left Coast profile, often with the...
April 2003 Countercurrents
Shaken
Roland Ramanan
For decades, persons of color have shaped British jazz and improvised music. Even without the legendary South African exiles, it's still an impressive lot, starting with pioneering altoist Joe Harriott in the '60s, continuing with saxophonists Courtney Pine...
April 2003 Countercurrents
Pasta Variations
No Spaghetti Edition
Pat Thomas' ongoing work with No Spaghetti Edition, an Oslo-based ensemble with a frequently changing line-up, is representative of his edgy electronics and keyboards. Though NSE's second CD, Pasta Variations (Sofa), finds the group trimmed down from 12...
April 2003 Countercurrents
Signature
Joelle Leandre/Masahiko Satoh/Yuji Takahashi
French bassist Joelle Leandre has a unique combination of credentials in both contemporary classical music-she has played with Boulez's Ensemble Intercontemporain and has had works composed for her by Cage, Scelsi and others-and improvisation, an endeavor...
April 2003 Countercurrents
Right Off
Derek Bailey/Carlos Bechegas
One of the tenets of post-Cage experimental music that has gained real traction among improvisers is the ability, in essence, to program indeterminacy using computers and MIDI technology. Portuguese flutist Carlos Bechegas creates an impressive variety of...
April 2003 Countercurrents
In Black and White: On Tour, Ann Arbor/NYC
Trio X
What good is freedom that frowns upon the blues and standard tunes? Especially if it inhibits the creativity of someone who has broken new ground decade after decade since the '60s like Joe McPhee? Luckily, the puritans of improvised music do not deter the...
January/February 2003 Albums
Cecil Taylor Bill Dixon Tony Oxley
Cecil Taylor/Bill Dixon/Tony Oxley
Now in his 70s, pianist Cecil Taylor has more strength and stamina than many musicians half his age. But recent recordings like The Willisau Concert (Intakt) suggest that Taylor has slowed by a nanosecond or two, his legendary raw voltage being replaced...
December 2002 Albums
Lift Every Voice
Charles Lloyd
Like countless Americans, Charles Lloyd sought refuge and recovery in music after 9/11. The two-CD Lift Every Voice is something of a diary of Lloyd's terror-induced journey within-coincidentally, the California-based tenor saxophonist was in New York City...
December 2002 Albums
Live - In Paris
Sonny Simmons Trio
Now should be the time for Sonny Simmons, who turns 70 next year. The alto saxophonist is as persuasive as he was in the 1960s, when he collaborated with Prince Lasha on the minor classic, Firebirds (OJC), and contributed to such overlooked albums as the...
November 2002 Features
Hamid Drake: Percussion Functions
Tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and percussionist Hamid Drake have just brought a capacity Lisbon, Portugal, crowd to its feet after an exhilarating hour-plus exchange at the 2002 Jazz em Agosto festival. The organic flow of materials was frictionless, cresting...
November 2002 Albums
Coltrane (Deluxe Edition)
John Coltrane
Coltrane, Ballads and A Love Supreme succinctly trace the arc of John Coltrane's early '60s ascendancy as an artist and as a market force, which still shapes jazz today. In the span of three years, the saxophonist went from an artist requiring a makeover...
10/29/02 Concerts
San Francisco Jazz Festival 2002
The San Francisco Jazz Festival has a lot to celebrate on its 20th anniversary. What was initially a three-day presentation of Bay Area artists has grown into a three-week marathon of concerts featuring internationally renowned headliners and legends. In...
October 2002 Albums
Song for My Sister
Roscoe Mitchell & the Note Factory
Some jazz-related composers are noteworthy for their original vocabulary; some are lionized for their ability to give a variety of existing styles their personal imprint. Among the first wave of AACM composer-instrumentalists, Roscoe Mitchell has perhaps...
October 2002 Albums
Live at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, 1986
Don Cherry
The mid-1980s were a pivotal period for Don Cherry. Much of his energies had been devoted to co-op projects like Codona and Old and New Dreams, and he also helped jumpstart the Leaders. The time being ripe to form his own ensemble, Cherry created Nu, a quintet...
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