http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=6670

La prima rivolta nera si era verificata nel 1963 a Birmingham in Alabama. Nel 1964 era stata la volta di Harlem, e via via gli incidenti di Rochester, Chicago e Philadelphia con i loro bilanci di morti e feriti… Erano gli anni difficili, in cui gli afroamericani combattevano per la loro emancipazione e oltre alle lotte dure, violente, nei quartieri, e alle iniziative politiche (da cui trasse linfa vitale il Free Jazz), cercavano spazi di aggregazione e di svago.

Joe Morris | Camera

Download or Buy Joe Morris Camera on espdisk.com

L’improvvisazione come cinepresa, in grado di esplorare tutto ciò che la circonda, e l’improvvisazione come macchina fotografica che di quella esplorazione ne coglie, il momento, l’unicità, l’istantaneità. Sono così i flash, gli umori e i pensieri tradotti in suoni, senza apparente filo logico, semplicemente come fermo immagine di una moltitudine di sensazioni tra le quali per districarsi bisogna scegliere un criterio per fare ordine. Per ottenere ciò Joe Morris allestisce una formazione non del tutto tradizionale, decisamente sbilanciata sul versante cordofono. Oltre alla sua chitarra seminale, alle pelli e ai metalli del fido Luther Gray, convoca l’interessante violinista Katt Hernandez e l’eclettica violoncellista Junko Fujiwara Simons.Ma a dispetto dell’eccellente qualità media della sua sterminata produzione e proprio per le aspettative che ogni suo lavoro legittimamente solleva, dobbiamo dire che Camera è lungi dall’annoverarsi tra le sue cose migliori. La qualità dell’esecuzione non si discute, s’intende, ma manca quell’incisività, quella capacità di cogliere il segno con pochi movimenti e poche note, quella visione complessiva che accompagna anche le produzioni più ardite e apparentemente indecifrabili, che sono il marchio di fabbrica del grande chitarrista e compositore. E proprio quest’ultimo ci sembra l’anello debole della catena musicale di Mr. Morris. Il maestro e i suoi compagni di viaggio giostrano di buon grado tra micro-tonalità, ampie sezioni cameristiche, marcate dissonanze ma le foto che scattano ci appaiono leggermente sfocate e a tratti fuori campo.

Calling Talibam!’s 2009 apotheosis, Boogie in the Breeze Blocks “creative music” is quite the understatement. That LP firmed their current trajectory towards dead serious experimentalism fused with shits-n-giggles trippiness. On their ESP-Disk debut, the twosome melded their aesthetic to perfection: the free jazz moxie, the classic rock and metal flash and the Zappa meets Peanuts fuckfoolery. “Our band started in 2003 primarily as a free improv unit,” Mottel says. “But as a band should do–develop and grow–we basically became, as a duo, an extreme punk rock organ-drums psych unit with free elements and been playing a tight set list the last two years. Once you get tagged with ‘avant-jazz,’ especially by critics, that really stays and that’s the only thing they associate with the band.”

Talibam! On Going To Bed And Discovering Atlantis, 
Meeting Macaulay Culkin, And Starting The Post-Goof Movement

Talibam! on ESP - Disk'

Download or View Eartrip

William Hooker
The Cherch
Sat., Feb. 19, 2011

There’s nothing like a barrage of furious drums to get out some negative energy. And William Hooker‘s solo performance at the Cherch on Saturday was nothing less than refreshing.

from Capital Bop

Eli Keszler may not be a household name, but at the age of 27 his commitment to his craft as a percussionist has afforded him the opportunities to accompany respected performers across innumerable genre boundaries. But Cold Pin, which is the title of his upcoming Cyclorama installation and its accompanying live performance, is an undertaking like nothing else Keszler has ever attempted.

GTK 1/3 Youtube Video

Photo by Ramez Elias

Jacques Coursil: The Weight of History

History is a trail,” says Jacques Coursil. “The present time is not a spot. It’s a space and in that space there is a heavy past and some dreamed future. The past and the future only exist in the present time. So talking about something ancient, it’s necessarily actual.” from Jazz Times March 2011

Jaques Coursil on ESP Disk’

Interview with Jacques Coursil by Jason Weiss

ESP4037     Sunny Murray

ESP4007     Frank Wright – The Complete ESP Disk’ Recordings

Drummer Roy Haynes Awarded for "Lifetime Achievement"

Roy Haynes on ESP – Disk’

Bud Powell – Winter Broadcasts, 1953 featuring Roy Haynes  and Oscar Pettiford

Bud Powell – Spring Broadcasts, 1953 featuring Roy Haynes, Oscar Pettiford and Charles Mingus

TALIBAM! Cosmoplitude (ESP-Disk’)

from http://cliffordallen.blogspot.com/

As mentioned above – and contrary to some of the literature out there – Cosmoplitude is not the first ESP-Disk’ 45, though it is the first to be released since their reemergence at the beginning of the last decade. At any rate, these two tracks exemplify the side of Talibam! (Matt Mottel, keyboards/vocals and Kevin Shea, drums/vocals) that’s keyed into the context of absurd dance-rock, as opposed to their more Zappa-Ra-noise leanings. “Cruisin’ the Cookie Isle” seems like an outtake from ESP debut Boogie in the Breeze Blocks, even reusing a police operator sample, and merges it with a hyperactive dance-party train wreck. It’s a fun and upbeat piece, but even Talibam! at their most Ritalin-addled still benefit from a longer-form setting to explore their ideation overflow. “Cosmic Attitude” is comparable, albeit a slower repetitive jam with Casio gloop pooling around electronic and acoustic beats, occupying a space of bleary-eyed early morning, semi-vacant dance floors and piss-soaked bathrooms. It’s a world that Talibam! may or may not be familiar with, but their mockery is one of the cruelest evocations of that setting I’ve heard. Cosmoplitude may not contain the most compelling music in their discography, but as with other Talibam! releases, it makes no claim to be anything beyond wry paradigm-changing gyration.