MetaFilter posts tagged with freejazz

Lunar Jamming

Korou — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:28:13 -0800

Moon Music: moonbell generates sounds based on lunar topography. (via) Topographical data is from Japan's recent KAGUYA explorer. Here's a short guide for the generator.

Rashied Ali

idiopath — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:37:24 -0800

Jazz pioneer Rashied Ali Has died. He leaves behind him a lifetime of collaborations in out jazz, with artists like Ayler, Coltrane, Cherry, Haino, Laswell, Bley, Sanders, and Ulmer. He was born Robert Patterson, on 1 July 1935. Ali's hyperactive and textural style was a revolution in free jazz, and one of Coltrane's biggest breaks with jazz tradition was making Ali his drummer. Rashied Ali continued to experiment and explore later in his life, collaborating with a new generation of Jazz innovators, people like Bill Laswell, Keiji Haino, William Parker and Charles Gayle.

His name was Albert Ayler

Joe Beese — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:25:57 -0800

One of the giants of free jazz, Albert Ayler was also one of the most controversial. His huge tone and wide vibrato were difficult to ignore, and his 1966 group sounded like a runaway New Orleans brass band from 1910. - AllMusic Albert Ayler's greatest studio recording was Spiritual Unity (1964).

Mahanthappa picks Indian music

kenko — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:47:06 -0800

Destination: Out, an astounding mp3 blog devoted to mostly out-of-print free jazz and improv records, has been linked a few times on Ask, but never gotten the main-page exposure it deserves. Until now. The editors' selections are always interesting and written about well, and they're ready to go to the mat for the music. (The interview with Marsalis by the Bad Plus to which that's a response is also well worth reading.) But the real impetus for this post is only tangentially related to jazz: recently they got saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa to do a guest post on Indian (mostly Carnatic) music, and it won't be long before the links expire. Fall to! Another tangent: Mahanthappa's frequent collaborator Vijay Ayer somewhat recently Andrew Hill tunes jazz.com. No downloads here, alas.

The Art Ensemble of Chicago

sleepy pete — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:58:54 -0800

An introductory piece on the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Some funk from the quintet. "Ohnedaruth", 1983, in Warsaw (pt. 2) Four songs in five minutes. Lugano, Switzerland, 1979. With some djembe players sitting in (80s?). With Cecil Taylor, 1984. In Cagliari, 1982. In 1981. Theme de Yoyo (with Fontella Bass ). I wish there was a better video, but you should definitely listen. Bonus: Roscoe Mitchell Sound and Space Ensemble. A fireside chat with the band from All About Jazz (2003). PSF interview with Joseph Jarman (1999). Bill Cosby's tribute to Lester Bowie (!). Bonus bonus having nothing to do with AEoC: Sonny Sharrock and band (Laswell, Kaiser, DST, others) while Keith Haring does a live drawing (1983). Sorry for the link dump, but once I started watching these awhile back, I reallized that they were all really amazing. Also, sorry for the insistence of one of the YT users placing small ads before some of the vids.

We travel the spaceways

sleepy pete — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:23:56 -0800

Brother from Another Planet (Pts. 2, 3, and 4) is a documentary about Sun Ra and his Arkestra(s) on YT. It features interviews with Archie Shepp, Amiri Baraka, John Sinclair, and several members of the Arkestra as well as several live clips and scenes from the 1974 movie Space is the Place. (previously) It seems to be incomplete by a bit, but well worth the watch whether this is an introduction or you're an aficionado. Or, you could just read the book by John F. Szwed. The YT user also has several other interesting videos up including Black President on Fela Kuti, Wim Wenders entry into The Blues series called "Soul of a Man", and several fine clips of Parliament-Funkadelic/Bootsy's Rubber Band.

Worlds Within Worlds

Len — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:32:19 -0800

Basil Kirchin, 1927-2005

Who he? Kirchin began, aged 14, as a drummer in his father Ivor's jazz band. By the mid-1950s, he and his father were co-leading the most acclaimed jazz band in Britain. They backed Ruby Murray (whose name lives on as cockney rhyming slang for curry), and the great Sarah Vaughan wouldn't tour the UK without them; neither would Billy Eckstine. After disbanding the Kirchin band at the height of their fame, Basil set off around the world, a trip which ended disastrously, when Kirchin's tapes of his band's best moments (obsessively recorded, thanks to the fact that the Kirchin band was one of the first to travel with their own PA system) were accidentally dropped into Sydney Harbour. [more inside]