John Zorn - Jamie Saft Trio - Astaroth - Book Of Angels

With Sanhedrin: Unreleased Studio Recordings 1994-1997, saxophonist/composer John Zorn put a period on what turns out to be but the first phase of his Masada project. His voluminous Masada songbook, first emerging in '94 with his quartet featuring trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Greg Cohen, and drummer Joey Baron, has gone on to a wide variety of interpretations, including solo guitar, piano/violin recital, string trio, and electric octet.
But when Zorn indicated in the liner notes to Sanhedrin that he had composed an entire second book of Masada music in an almost ridiculously short period of time, the question arose as to whether there was something new to be said, after over two hundred compositions in the first Masada songbook so vividly and completely explored the juncture of traditional Jewish music and a variety of improvising contexts. Based on the first recording of Masada Book Two material, Astaroth, Book of Angels, it's clear that Zorn's frenetic imagination has yet to run dry. In fact, there are a number of surprises about Astaroth that create high anti****tion for future Book Two releases.

the kilimanjaro darkjazz ensemble - the kilimanjaro darkjazz ensemble [2007]

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - to właściwie duet z Holandii, Jason Kohnen i Gideon Kiers którzy zadebiutowali w 2006 roku w wytwórni Planet Mu.
Chcąc napisać kilka słów o tym krążku, słuchając go w tle, łapie się na tym, jak wiele emocji on we mnie wyzwala i tym samym jak niesamowitym materiałem częstują wyżej wymienieni panowie. Nie chcę, by zabrzmiało to jak anty-rekomendacja, w żadnym wypadku - jednak wypada mi ostrzec co niektórych, a właściwie przygotować przed pierwszym odsłuchem. Na początek więc - na pewno nie jest to płyta do relaksu, mi przynajmniej Niepokój obecny od początku do końca płyty nie pozwala na umysłowy odpoczynek. Nie znaczy to jednak, że któraś z kompozycji mnie męczy.
Niewinnie otwierający ,,The Nothing Changes'' z przewijającym się gitarowym riffem w filmowym stylu zdradza naturę albumu, na myśl przychodzą obrazy z pierwszych filmów grozy, którymi zresztą rzekomo panowie się inspirowali. Dalej natrafiam na prawdziwą ucztę - utwór ,,Pearls for Swine'' przybija mnie do łóżka - potężny, chaotyczny aby następnie stać się melodyjnym. Kolejne utwory na przemian równoważą i wzbudzają chaos. Pięknie multiinstrumentalne, jazzowe kompozycje całe utkane w eksperymenty i zabiegi elektroniczne. Projekt wyjątkowy, wydaje mi się, że z tą samą mocą co wzbudza huśtawkę nastrojów, tak samo wywołuje on skrajne opinie. Pozostaje pytanie, czy macie odwagę?

THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE are a project which has always been tied to films. Films are luxurious because they dispose of all these boring, unimportant, and trivial parts of our lives. This allows them to fully control our sensations, to put us in a very specific mood. Joy and sadness are occasionally OK, endless joy or endless sadness are clinical. But there is one sensation which can be persistent and unconditionally bearable at the same time. In the absence of a better alternative, let's call it "the mood". The mood is what TKDE are aiming at. The mood.

Tomasz Stańko - Music For K

Back in 1970, when this disc was recorded, Tomasz Stanko, by now an internationally established and admired jazz personality, was already known as one of the very few convincing free-jazzmen. In his bold endeavours he was lucky to enjoy some understanding and sensitive partners. Earlier, in the sixties Stanko's experiences were both as a sideman and a leader. He cooperated with such greats as Krzysztof Komeda, Wlodzimierz Nahorny, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Andrzej Trzaskowski, Don Cherry and Albert Mangelsdorff, but his favourite partners were Janusz Muniak, Janusz Stefanski, Zbig Seifert and - a bit later - Bronislaw Suchanek. Tomasz Stanko Quintet flourished without personal changes for five years (1969-1973), scoring a big success during 1970 Jazz Jamboree.

Around that time, a year after untimely death of Krzysztof Komeda (1939-1969), the quintet recorded four pieces by Stanko, naming the LP after the main composition: Music for K", thus paying homage to the memory of deceased friend and expressing his emotional attitude toward his premature death. However, Stanko didn't attempt to relate here to Komeda's sound or style
and remains very much himself presenting his peculiar, personal way of shaping music, remote, on the surface only, from the structural clarity. His predilection toward spontaneous development of music, based on very few indispensable determinants, surprisingly dovetails here with the emotional content of such deeply felt numbers like "Cry" and "Music for K". It seems obvious that Stanko's free stems rather from Coltrane's last work and his shades of expression are rich and many.

Cinematic Orchestra - Live At The Royal Albert Hall

Live at the Royal Albert Hall is a live album by The Cinematic Orchestra, released in the UK on April 14, 2008 on Ninja Tune Records. The origi,al concert was performed on November 2, 2007 at The Royal Albert Hall in London.The Cinematic Orchestra is a British jazz and electronic outfit, created in the late 1990s by Jason Swinscoe. The band is signed to Ninja Tune independent record label. In addition to Swinscoe, the band includes PC (former DJ Food member Patrick Carpenter) on turntables, Luke Flowers (drums), Tom Chant (Saxophone), Nick Ramm (piano), Stuart McCallum (guitar) and Phil France (double bass). Former members include Jamie Coleman (trumpet), T. Daniel Howard (drums), Federico Ughi (drums) and Alex James (piano). The most recent addition to the band is Mancunian guitarist Stuart McCallum.