Articles by Max Kutner
Sleeping Beast: Sleeping Beast
by Max Kutner
The self-titled debut album from Texas-based trio Sleeping Beast is a fascinating document showcasing an engaging, amorphous dialogue between three patient and well-journeyed improvisors. There is a unique, abstract chemistry between Danny Kamins, Thomas Helton, and Lisa Cameron that never ceases to engage and invent. Each player displays remarkable restraint and intense consideration when deciding what to express. The character of their collective is always evident throughout this session. jny:Houston-based Kamins, here on alto saxophone and contra-alto clarinet, has ...
Continue ReadingMarquis Hill Family Band at the Village Vanguard
by Max Kutner
Marquis Hill Family Band The Village Vanguard New York, NY March 19, 2026 Critically-acclaimed trumpeter and composer Marquis Hill brought his Family Band to the Village Vanguard on March 19th as part of weeklong residency marking Hill's debut as a bandleader. The late set boasted a full hour of five original pieces that bridged hip-hop grooves, hard swing, progressive R&B and more into a dazzling, fully developed spectacle of sound. The ensemble for the occasion ...
Continue ReadingMeg Okura and Pan-Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble at The Jazz Gallery
by Max Kutner
Meg Okura and Pan-Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble The Jazz Gallery New York, NY February 19, 2026 Freewheeling, versatile, and razor sharp, Meg Okura brought her Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble to The Jazz Gallery on Thursday, February 19th in support of both the group's newly released fifth album Isaiah and the 20th anniversary of the group's formation. The entire set--one of two this night--focused exclusively on Okura's originals from Isaiah and culminated with an appearance from special guest ...
Continue ReadingSeth Andrew Davis & EMAS: Cybersyn: Live From the Stray Cat Film Center
by Max Kutner
Undeniably one of the most active and adventurous figures of the greater Midwest music and arts scene, composer/guitarist/improvisor Seth Andrew Davis has emerged as a force of creative exploration and inquiry. Currently based in Kansas City, MO, Davis has released well over a dozen albums through his imprint, Mother Brain Records (co-founded with fellow Missouri-native, Michael Eaton) and many more. In line with the experimental and improvisation-focused mission of the label, Davis' “Cybersyn: Live at the Stray Cat Film Center" ...
Continue ReadingBen Stapp Solo / Frank London Electronics Trio at Loove Labs Annex
by Max Kutner
Ben Stapp/Frank London Electronics Trio Loove Labs Annex Brooklyn, NY February 8, 2026 When used as a descriptor for music, the term experimental is often bandied about as a catchall term for anything slightly beyond the scope of a listener's supposed expectations. To experiment requires an open curiosity for any possible outcomes given a uniquely mutable set of conditions decided upon by the artist. In a sense, this can imply that anything deemed experimental ...
Continue ReadingBillie Davies: 2455 (Music for the Future)
by Max Kutner
2455: Music for the Future features the telekinetic duo of drummer/percussionist Billie Davies and trumpeter Branden James Lewis presenting a series of dreamlike improvisations united under Davies' concept of No Boundaries, Music for the 24th Century. Davies' vision and designs allow the music to shape-shift and wander at whim between dub, ambient, free jazz, musique concrète, and more. By allowing for fluid stylistic ambiguity and employing a bevy of processed sounds in their arsenal--extensive synth layering and loops, for example--the ...
Continue ReadingMichael Eaton: Stygian Gates
by Max Kutner
Symbiotique Nonet is a unique and noble beast, living in a suburb situated somewhere in the unsung wilds between modern chamber music and free jazz. The group is co-led by NYC-based saxophonist-composer, Michael Eaton and Kansas City-based electro-acoustic improviser-guitarist, Seth Andrew Davis. Stygian Gates, penned by Eaton, is a multi-movement suite loosely themed around characters and scenes from Greek mythology, especially the underworld and its various rivers. While the concept may sound dry at first read, even an initial exploration reveals an ...
Continue ReadingLuke Bergman, Jason Burger, Martin Nevin: Luke Bergman, Jason Burger, Martin Nevin
by Max Kutner
Centering the theme of an album around the sum of its performers is hardly a new idea but one that nevertheless yields innumerable possibilities of expression as personalities will always be unique. The dynamic between Luke Bergman, Jason Burger, and Martin Nevin on this self-titled recording is no exception to that rule but speaks to the most positive aspects of serving the concept before the separate needs of each member. Together, they fuse minds and deliver a set of sweetly ...
Continue ReadingElijah Shiffer: City Of Birds, Volume 3: Fly By Night Blues
by Max Kutner
Few current composers are as restlessly inventive as saxophonist-clarinetist Elijah Shiffer. Over the past decade, Shiffer has led numerous ensembles and written an ever-expanding catalog of original music, all crafted and thematically tied closely to and informed by distinct aspects of his interests and tastes. Fly by Night Blues, the third volume in his City of Birds series, speaks to all those qualities. Like the previous two offerings, Shiffer uses meticulously transcribed songs and voices from birds native to the ...
Continue ReadingYoshie Fruchter's Pitom: Alive and Well
by Max Kutner
Yoshie Fruchter has been a presence within the Radical Jewish and Modern Klezmer music circles for nearly 3 decades. His ensemble, Pitom, showcases many facets of his deep knowledge in those scenes as filtered through the sludge-clouded lenses of grunge, doom, and just straight metal. The band has released three full length albums since its inception, including Pitom (Tzadik, 2008), a follow-up entitled Blasphemy And Other Serious Crimes (Tzadik, 2011), both housed on John Zorn 's Tzadik imprint--and now, Alive and Well ...
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