Chris Kelsey

With names like Alphonse Mouzon, Roy McCurdy and Azar Lawrence listed on the sleeve, you could be forgiven for expecting this to be either a … Read More “Azar Lawrence: Prayer for My Ancestors”

An air of impulsive surrender suffuses this music, as if Ravi Coltrane aimed to embody Lennie Tristano’s musical philosophy of intuition and feeling. From E.J. … Read More “Ravi Coltrane: Blending Times”

Michael Blake is one of an all-too-common subset of the jazz community: players who create brilliant music while flying largely under the radar of widespread … Read More “Michael Blake Sextet : Amor de Cosmos”

Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar blends the Iraqi maqam (“the music of his father’s ancestral past,” or so it says in the press notes) with jazz, … Read More “Amir Elsaffar: Two Rivers”

Joel Futterman’s fists-of-fury pianism is the most interesting thing about this hard-core free-jazz trio, recorded live in performance at a Portland, Ore. jazz club. Joining … Read More “Joel Futterman/Alvin Fielder/Ike Levin: Live at the Blue Monk”

Drummer Motian’s long-running trio with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell is a serendipitous assemblage of complementary personalities. Motian and guitarist Frisell are ingenious colorists: Frisell, … Read More “Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano: Time and Time Again”

New Ghost combines complex Zappa-esque instrumentals and spoken-word vocals with an off-kilter funkiness and anarchic punk expressionism. The result is a crazily inventive music that … Read More “New Ghost: Live Upstairs at Nick’s”

It’s rare that I listen to a record that, from the first note, grabs and holds me. This one does. Dutz is an L.A. session … Read More “Brad Dutz: When Manatees Attack”

The stylistically peripatetic pianist Satoko Fujii addresses short-form free jazz here, with a group composed of bassist Mark Dresser, drummer Jim Black and trumpeter Natsuki … Read More “Satoko Fujii Four : When We Were There”

At the beginning of his career and for decades to follow, Anthony Braxton made exceptional recordings. Each seemed more inspired than the last, due in … Read More “Anthony Braxton: 4 Compositions (Ulrichsberg) 2005 Phonomanie VIII”

Charles Mingus once said that the full title of his tune “Gunslinging Bird” was “If Charlie Parker Were a Gunslinger, There’d be a Whole Lot … Read More “Sonny Stitt: Stitt’s Bits: The Bebop Recordings, 1949-1952”

Tenor and soprano saxophonist Vassilakis leads a trio that includes bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts in a set of venturesome groove-based originals. … Read More “Dimitri Vassilakis: Parallel Lines”

This album was recorded in Brooklyn on September 23, 2005, just weeks after New Orleans resident Kidd Jordan’s house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. It’s … Read More “Kidd Jordan/Hamid Drake/William Parker: Palm of Soul”

Every record Sam Rivers makes is attention-worthy. Each is another brushstroke in the painting of the masterpiece that is his career. Of course, not all … Read More “Sam Rivers/Ben Street/Kresten Osgood: Violet Violets”

You might think being a key member of some of the most influential fusion groups in history would place a guy in the music’s pantheon. … Read More “The Bennie Maupin Ensemble: Penumbra”

The press release accompanying this CD calls saxophonist/flutist Paul Shapiro “ambassador of hip to the world of Jewish music.” OK, I’ll stipulate that. Shapiro makes … Read More “Paul Shapiro: It’s In the Twilight”

Ages before reductionist improvisation morphed into a contest to see who could say the least within the longest possible span of time and in the … Read More “Wadada Leo Smith and Adam Rudolph: Compassion”

Get any group of free jazzers together, turn ’em loose and chances are they’ll spontaneously hit upon the strategies used here: pedal-point polymetric incantations, free-time … Read More “Fred Anderson: Timeless-Live at the Velvet Lounge”

Alex Harding’s The Calling reminds me of a time not so long ago when jazz maintained fairly consistent values-before “straightahead” and “free” became irreconcilably separate, … Read More “Alex Harding & Blutopia: The Calling”

Today I saw an even-slicker-than-usual Wynton Marsalis hawking iPods, laying out lines of boppish exactitude for the conspicuous consumption of moneyed hipsters. It’s the 21st … Read More “Oliver Lake Quartet: Live”