Articles by John Sharpe
Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash, Tony Orrell: Lifeline
by John Sharpe
New bottles, same wine? On Lifeline, Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash and Tony Orrell, who operate under the moniker Bley School with acoustic instruments, convene in the studio with electronics. The trio's defining traits--deep listening, volatility and reflexive interaction--persist, but now unfold through circuitry rather than strings and skins. Furthermore, in place of the covers favored in their parallel incarnation, they dispense with lead sheets and leap into the unknown. As a result agency blurs in sometimes opaque collages of ricocheting ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis: The Solastalgia Suite
by John Sharpe
For her first excursion into string quartet writing, Canadian pianist Kris Davis shapes a restless interplay of atmospheric texture and rhythmic urgency on The Solastalgia Suite. The title takes its cue from philosopher Glenn Albrecht's term for mourning environmental loss, a concept that resonates throughout the work's uneasy lyricism. Commissioned by the Jazztopad Festival in Wrocław for the Lutosławski Quartet--following previous contributions from Craig Taborn, James Brandon Lewis, and Vijay Iyer--the suite was captured during the festival's 2024 edition in ...
Continue ReadingOlivia Moore and Adam Fairhall: Triangles
by John Sharpe
Violinist Olivia Moore and accordionist Adam Fairhall unveil a strikingly agile dialogue on their debut Triangles. This stylistically porous album refracts folk lineage, jazz instinct and chamber interplay into something quietly subversive. Moore arrives via folk and Indian classical study, while Fairhall--more often heard at the piano--draws from an eclectic hinterland of solo performance, early jazz, improv and less easily classified idioms. However, the eleven tracks, which span originals, covers and traditional sources, ground their unlikely turns in melody and ...
Continue ReadingNatsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii: Ki
by John Sharpe
Sometimes the most bracing departures come from artists who know each other best. Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii has a discography with over one hundred entries in every configuration from solo to big band, notable for their variety, often with husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamura in close attendance. However Ki, the tenth offering from their long running duet partnership, marks a striking shift in approach. Where its predecessors thrived on volatility and contrast, this set opts for radical restraint, paring back emotional ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado The Bridge: Further Beyond
by John Sharpe
As well as being one of the premier exponents of his instrument, Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado thrives in demanding company. For Further Beyond, the follow-up to Beyond The Margins (Trost, 2023), he reconvenes the all star cast he calls The Bridge, comprising pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and drummer Gerry Hemingway. On three expansive cuts from a 2023 Amsterdam concert, they advance a strain of contemporary improvisation rooted in free jazz yet impatient with its formal ...
Continue ReadingLarry Stabbins: Aurora
by John Sharpe
After a long hiatus, reedman Larry Stabbins' renewed presence on the British scene offers cause for celebration. All the more so as Sarost, one of his prime contemporary outlets, matches him with partners of equal standing. Flanking him in a co-operative trio--whose name, derived from the first two letters of their constituent surnames, affirms the group's egalitarian ethos--reside drummer Mark Sanders and bassist Paul Rogers. Four studio cuts unfold a spacious dialogue built on sensitive listening and instrumental virtuosity, whether ...
Continue ReadingSophie Agnel / Michael Zerang: Draw Bridge
by John Sharpe
Draw Bridge showcases yet another unlikely but rewarding product of the well-trodden thoroughfare between France and Chicago. Under the aegis of the Transatlantic Bridge initiative, now in its 12th year, pianist Sophie Agnel enters the studio with percussionist Michael Zerang for a series of nine collective duets. The pair traffics in a unconventional language wrested from prepared piano and an augmented drum kit, a music that intrigues as much as it unsettles. Agnel's dissatisfaction with the limitations of ...
Continue ReadingMisha Mengelberg / Sabu Toyozumi: The Analects Of Confucius
by John Sharpe
As the reputations of Japanese free players grew during the 1970s, they lured a procession of Europeans and Americans eager to collaborate, among them Steve Lacy, Peter Brotzmann, Derek Bailey, and John Zorn. Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg also made the journey, first with the Instant Composers Pool (ICP) in 1982 and later independently. One of the most frequent partners awaiting visiting musicians was drummer Sabu Toyozumi. A 1994 meeting yielded The Untrammeled Traveller (Chap Chap, 2013); The Analects Of Confucius, ...
Continue ReadingJohn Dikeman: No Kings
by John Sharpe
Recorded live in 2022, No Kings documents a volatile meeting between a formidable European horn partnership and American free jazz royalty. In 2015, expat American saxophonist John Dikeman initiated a trio with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. Five years later, he invited Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente to join them, resulting in the quartet heard here on its second album, following Goes Without Saying, But It's Got To Be Said (JACC Records, 2020). The reedman and brass player share ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado: The Healing
by John Sharpe
The Healing unites tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado and drummer Chris Corsano in a tremendous set that tempers visceral power with nuanced exchange. An archival release, it documents a 2016 live date at Lisbon's ZBD Club, marking the second recording by this duo, after a 2014 session issued as No Place To Fall (Astral Spirits, 2019). However the Portuguese reed player and American percussionist have been comrades since 2012 in a quartet completed by bassist Kent Kessler and saxophonist-trumpeter Joe McPhee ...
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