Great free jazz/improvised albums 2005-2015

[Tanner]

so the dates may seem arbitrary, but 2005 is the time I mostly stopped paying attention to the general area of free jazz and improv, and I figure you can't know if an album really holds up until after a few years thus 2005-2015... but of course view this as a loose limitation and act accordingly. I should also clarify I'm talking about more traditional free jazz and improvised music rather than EAI or the music that falls into the intersection of composed and improvised chamber music vis a vis stuff on Another Timbre, Wandelweiser, etc. I think I'm more on top of the important stuff in that area (sort of I guess, who knows). So what's crucial? Is there anything crucial for that matter? Does any of it matter? Jeez, that got out of hand. Anyway...

I don't know if anyone uses this forum much anymore, but couldn't think of anywhere else to ask that wasn't fb.

[Steve Minkin]

Here are a couple of personal favorites, was lucky enough to see the second one performed live here in town.




Paolo Angeli, Evan Parker, Ned Rothenberg ‎– Free Zone Appleby 2007




Oliver Lake Organ Quartet -- Plan (Larry Young disciple on organ, very cool)

[Adrian]

http://www.runegrammofon.com/artists/ci ... idth-_3cd/

[Adrian]

plus I really like Supersilent, not sure if that falls into the desired area...

[Dan Warburton]

Wow, the list would be looooooong... "Free jazz / improvised" already covers a whole lot of genres & aesthetics.. Between Derek Bailey, Keith Rowe and Sonny Sharrock you've already got three different guitar worlds.. Care to provide a few limits to the territory? (By instrument, label, country...?) Meanwhile, as you know, most of what you're looking for has probably been discussed here already, or on archive websites, my own included. You're right, though, most folks discuss this stuff elsewhere these days. Looks like IHM has become a repository for Steve Shakespeare musings (excellent) and my own occasional scribbles on film. Would be great to have more music talk, but I'm not going to sign up to fb to find it myself.

[Wombatz]

some of the old guard continuing to work on a very high level, like leo smith, joe mcphee, or henry threadgill. two releases that transcended my taking these guys for granted were tapestries for small orchestra by bill dixon and the first peter brötzmann/heather leigh (though that's probably 2016) ...

[Wombatz]

Between Derek Bailey, Keith Rowe and Sonny Sharrock you've already got three different guitar worlds..

i think one can safely say that most of sharrock's best work was before 2005 (while carpal tunnel is definitely worth a listen)

[Steve Minkin]

Steve Shakespeare musings (excellent)

Thanks! They're here, too, a site run by one of our group's readers, 30K+ members. Superb resouorce:

https://www.playshakespeare.com/

[Tanner]

Thanks for the recommendations so far. Familiar with the Brotzmann/Leigh disc. One of the few things I've been interested by the Brotz in a long while. It also seems one where he's more out of his usual routine, but then again, I haven't been paying that much attention as I wrote before.

Wow, the list would be looooooong... "Free jazz / improvised" already covers a whole lot of genres & aesthetics.. Between Derek Bailey, Keith Rowe and Sonny Sharrock you've already got three different guitar worlds.. Care to provide a few limits to the territory? (By instrument, label, country...?) Meanwhile, as you know, most of what you're looking for has probably been discussed here already, or on archive websites, my own included. You're right, though, most folks discuss this stuff elsewhere these days. Looks like IHM has become a repository for Steve Shakespeare musings (excellent) and my own occasional scribbles on film. Would be great to have more music talk, but I'm not going to sign up to fb to find it myself.

I'm a fan of Bailey, Rowe, Sharrock, and I understand that this is a large area (but again, I'm looking post 2005); I get that what Axel Dorner does is very different than Peter Evans or Choi Sun Bae etc. And perhaps this is too broad. but they still occupy at many points the same general territory (again I'm leaving out EAI or Wandelweiser type stuff). to be clear (hopefully), my question is what do you consider absolutely crucial recordings from the area of acoustic free jazz/improv, the albums that would stand up with the old greats from Incus, FMP, ESP, BYG, etc. I was thinking about how Cook and Morton gave a "crown" designation in earlier Penguin Guide to Jazz books, essential recordings, cutting the wheat from the chaff. These kind of albums are so few and far between, and with the nature of how many free jazz/improv albums get released (I see a weekly update from Squidco that kind of blows my mind) and how in serious need of editing or cutting altogether many seem to be I figured there's even fewer that would be considered altogether GREAT.

[Tanner]

some of the old guard continuing to work on a very high level, like leo smith, joe mcphee, or henry threadgill. two releases that transcended my taking these guys for granted were tapestries for small orchestra by bill dixon and the first peter brötzmann/heather leigh (though that's probably 2016) ...

I've never given up on Mcphee, but I can't really keep up with how much stuff is released. Love Threadgill still. Went and saw him and Zooid a few months ago. Info overload. Great stuff.

[Dan Warburton]

i think one can safely say that most of sharrock's best work was before 2005 (while carpal tunnel is definitely worth a listen)

Haha, yes, oops forgot the date. That squelching noise isn't a Rowe album but the sound of my wiping egg off face

[negative potential]

Myra Melford Snowy Egret

Alexander Schlippenbach and Eddie Prevost - Blackheath

Globe Unity Orchestra 50 Years

Mary Halvorson Octet - Away With You

also, it's a 2005 release so you might have just missed it, but the Schlippenbach Monk's Casino 3CD set on Intakt.

[negative potential]

and for something that completely defies all the genre categories you list, "Nessuno" by Roscoe Mitchell, Pauline Oliveros, Wadada Leo Smith, and John Tilbury

[Captain Hate]

Barry Guy New Orchestra Small Formations - Mad Dogs

[Eric Kline]

Here's a couple of cassette releases I've listened to countless times and still love:

Jacob Wick - Twice Love (Marginal Frequency) (2016)
Joe Foster / Kelvin Pittman - s/t split (Cherried Out Merch) (2006)

The Wick answered a question I had at the time: "what would it sound like to have emotive/ lyrical trumpet playing alongside extended technique playing in an EAI structured piece ala Kelley / Dorner etc."

The Foster / Pittman is a huge favorite of mine which I've never heard anyone talk about...
The Pittman side is quite wonderful...spacious and shambling solo sax, with an inscrutable but amazingly natural structure that I can never seem to grasp.
The Foster side (trumpet, electronics) while maybe too much in the EAI camp for this post, is really great...its structure seems somehow related to the Pittman; spacious but in no way conciously reductionist or whatever. Also, the two sides really seem to inform one another in a magical way...

[Steve Reynolds]

Barry Guy New Orchestra Small Formations - Mad Dogs

also Mad Dogs on the Loose - which are also small formations of the above band (Barry Guy's New Orchestra) from a couple of years later - and much more affordable.

Arguably better and more modern are the TWO box sets with Guy's Blue Shroud Band - called Tensegrity & Intensegrity which are mostly younger musicians from various backgrounds, Curated brilliantly. Maybe my favorite improvised music of the past 5 years.

seconds on later period McPhee, Threadgill, Brotzmann and some others

STRONG recommendations on the below from John Butcher

John Butcher Way Out Northwest Trio - 2 fine recordings - look for the earlier one first

John Butcher with Red Trio - rare excellent Clean Feed recording

I'll work on a comprehensive list as this sort of improvised music is still my go to among everything else I love in music.

labels to investigate start with Not Two, No Business, Relative Pitch and Intakt (although Intakt is often to close to mainstream for me - I'm mostly in it for when it delves away from jazz, per se).

[Captain Hate]

Thanks for the heads up on that Intensegrity, Reynolds, about which I was unaware. I agree that they're all primo but I'm partial to the first one, probably because of disc 4 with TARFALA Trio and Parker/Guy/Lytton/Fernandez. And one night while drinking barrel aged stout I was 100% mesmerized by the Johannes Bauer/Per-Åke Holmlander/Hans Koch piece on disc 1 to which I'd previously barely paid attention.

I look forward to your comprehensive list.

[negative potential]

Johannes Bauer

RIP

I think the first time I saw Johannes Bauer was in a group with Mark Sanders and either John Edwards or Mathias Bauer on bass.

He also played a great duo with Christof Kurzmann at the Charhizma Festival in 2008.

[negative potential]

One more recording I'd add to this thread:

Axel Dörner / Mark Sanders - Stonecipher

[negative potential]

Also:

Sven-Åke Johansson / Annette Krebs - Peashot

Is it free jazz? Is it "improvised music"? Is it "eai"? Whatever, it's great!